The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree
by TAUT13
Summary: First Fic. Years after the Titans broke up Dick and Kori move back from Jump City. Will their daughter, Mari, make new friends or new enemies? And what are up with these kids that look awfully familiar?
1. Prologue

Hi, TAUT13 here. This is my first fanfic ever so please cut me some slack please. Thank you.

Prologue

"Tell me a bedtime story, Momma!" a little two year old girl with long black hair and fierce blue eyes asked her mom.

One story, then straight to bed," the little girl's mother said. "Once upon a time, there lived five friends," started the mom, "they lived in a place called Jump City. They were called the Teen Titans,"

And after that story the little girl asked for a Teen Titans story every night. The mother always had stories to tell. The little girl always fell asleep right after the Titans saved the day. One night after the story, the mother kissed her good night and went to her room were her husband was in bed already.

"What story did you tell her tonight?" Richard Grayson, the former Robin, asked his lovely wife.

"The one were we helped save Beast Boy from Soto," Kori Grayson, formerly known as Starfire, said while getting into bed.

That night, the whole household had a dream about the Titans. Richard and Kori dreamt of past memories, while their daughter Mari dreamt about people who, now, she felt like she completely knew but knew nothing about.

So how is it? Yes, I kown it's short but I Promise the other chapters will be longer. R&R please.


	2. Moving Day

Moving Day

Twelve years later, Kori and Richard were packing while Mari was at school.

"You know she is really mad at you, right?" Kori asked Richard while helping him pack pictures and other objects from his office at Wayne Manor. Richard and Kori decided to live at the manor because they were often away, and it was nice to have Alfred watch over their kids when they were gone.

"Yes, I know that. But look on the bright side; I was transferred over to Jump City," Dick replied, while doing some last minute packing.

"Here, Mommy," their youngest son, Ryan, said handing his mother a book that looked bigger than him. He was not moving with the rest of his family, he was staying with his grandfather.

Thank you, sweetheart," Kori said, grabbing the book out of his little five year old hands. She kissed him on the forehead. "When is Mari getting home, Richard?"

"I don't know, soon I think. It _is_ three but she had to clean her school locker out and will probably have a heavy backpack, so she'll be a little slower," Dick said, not looking up from packing.

"MOM! DAD! IVY, CAM, AND I ARE HOME… for the last time," was heard from the front door. Both Kori and Dick giggled; they could picture Alfred's face when she started to yell. Ryan ran downstairs to see his older sister and her friends, Ivy Crawford and Cam Rodriguez.

"Shall we go down to see what the kids are doing?" Richard asked, offering a hand to help Kori up off the floor. They both walked down the stairs to hear laughing from the kitchen. When they walked in, Mari, Ryan, Cam, and Ivy were laughing with Alfred while eating his famous double chocolate chip peanut butter cookies.

"Man, I wish Baile was here to be with us on your last day," Cam said with her very thick Spanish accent, before biting down on a cookie.

"Yeah, too bad she had cheerleading practice. I really hate the cheerleaders here," Ivy said after dunking her cookies into some soy milk, she was a vegetarian.

"You mean you actually _liked_ the cheerleaders at your old school?" Mari asked, her little brother sitting in her lap. As soon as she saw her parents walk in, the mood changed. "Why do we have to move? Or better yet, you two can move two Jump City and I can stay here with Ryan and Grandpa," Mari tried; it was the third time she had asked the question that day.

"Because Ryan is too young to move and we thought it would be nice for him to stay here," Kori said "and before you start, we think it will be good for you to go Jump and get new experiences" she added, seeing her daughter's mouth open to complain. "I'm sorry sweetheart, I really am," she said. "So did you say goodbye to all of your friends?"

"Yeah. They even gave me presents! Let's see… Peter gave me a framed photo of all of us at the park last week and Balie gave me a cool address book with all my friends' numbers in it. Not that I don't already have them, but you never know. Wait a minute… You tow haven't given me any going away presents," Mari said to Ivy and Cam, giving them a look that said "well, where is my gift?"

"We made you a special bracelet. Here, and don't ever give us that look again," Cam said, handing her a bracelet made with her favorite colors: blue, purple, black, and orange. "Mom helped us with the pattern," Cam said. Mari looked at the bracelet. She got up (forcing Ryan to move), went over to Cam and Ivy, and gave them a big hug.

"I'm really going to miss you guys," she said, almost crying.

"Aww man, I have to go or I'm going to be late getting home. My dad is going to mad if I'm late again! Bye Mari… I don't want to leave you." Ivy said, her eyes watering at the last part.

"I have to leave too," Cam said. "What time are you leaving tomorrow?" she asked while getting her coat on.

"Really early. We're driving all the way there 'cause of the fear Mom and I have about airplanes," Mari replied, looking down.

While this was going on, Kori and Dick were looking at a map, trying to figure out their route to Jump City and where they were going to stay; it took two days to get to Jump by car. All of a sudden, a barking was heard. Titan, the Graysons' dog, came running down to see Cam and Ivy to the door. He was going too, mostly because he was really Mari's dog "Titan, come!" Mari shouted before Titan went running into the kitchen.

"Bye, we'll miss you a lot," Cam and Ivy both said as they walked out the front door. Mari closed it and went up to her room with Titan at her heels.

"I'm going up to do some last minute packing," Mari said to her parents as she passed the kitchen. "Titan, this is going to be terrible. Nothing exciting ever happens in Jump City."

Little did she know, a lot was going to happen at Jump City.


	3. For Sale Signs

Ok. First, hi people! Thanks for clicking on my story. Something I have forgotten to do,

Disclaimer: I only own Mari, Cam, Ivy, Ryan, Joey, Elle, Kevin, Lilly, and Titan. Otherwise, I own squat.

Dedication: This is for my friends at school, and my editor, Toph. Love Y'all!

* * *

That same, Jump City

Three teens, all about fourteen years old, sat on the porch in front of two story house while a little girl played in the yard with dolls. "Can you believe that house is going up for sale again?" the African American said to the other teens. This was the fourth time this year the house had been up for sale. 

"I know. I bet both of you ten bucks the next people to move in don't last for six months," the only girl in the group said.

"You don't have ten dollars," the last boy said to the girl. The girl, who had black hair with green and purple streaks in it, smacked the boy, who had blond hair and strange purple eyes. All of a sudden, a woman and a man came to the door.

"Kevin, your dad just called he wants you home now," the woman said to the African American teen.

"He wants you to clean up before you come back over for dinner later," the man next to the woman said. The man next to the woman said. The two looked very happy together. The woman had pale skin with black hair and purple eyes. The man had cream colored skin with blond hair and forest green eyes. Kevin ran home, which took him all of five seconds since he lived right next door.

"Kids, take Lilly in and clan up for dinner a little," the woman said to the other two kids while the little girl playing in the front lawn came to them, dragging a blanket. The girl picked up the little girl and took her inside mumbling something about annoying brothers. The parents stayed out side for a little bit, looking at the house across the street that was, once again, up for sale. The woman kept staring at it.

"What are you thinking about, Rae?" the man asked, looking at the woman.

"First, what have I told you about calling me Rae, Gar?" The woman said, giving Gar a look that would scare most people, but not Gar.

"That only I can," he replied, putting his arms around her waist. "But really, what are you thinking about?"

"I just miss them, that's all," Rachel said, laying her head back toward her husband.

"I know, I miss them, too," he said kissing her cheek. "Lets head in though, we still have to order pizza before Vic, Karen, and Kevin come over."

"Yeah, I still can't wait for the new neighbors to move in. I really hate "For Sale" signs," Rachel said, walking into her house.

* * *

There you go, chapter 2. This is my last chapter till after March 30. I fly to Colorado the 21, my Birthday is the 22, I come back home the 30. So there is a birthday present from me two you. Later!


	4. Welcome to Jump City

Chapter Three

Two days later, Jump City

After two very long days stuck in a car, the Garysons got out of their car to stretch their legs in front of their new house. "Well, it's not what I pictured, but I like it." Mari said carrying a box across the front yard with Titan running crazily around the yard.

"You can head on inside; your room is up the stairs and on the left." Kori told her daughter from the moving truck, helping Richard take boxes out of. "There is already furniture in there; we can move the furniture any way you want."

"What I want is to move back to Gotham." Mari mumbled. "Come on Ti; let's see where we are going to stay." With Titan following her Mari and Titan went into the house while Kori and Richard stayed out to unload more boxes.

Up stairs Mari was taking in her new room. It was a decent size room, not too big and not too small, the walls were all white, but her parents promised she could paint them what ever she wanted; she also had a wooden desk, a full sized bed, a nightstand with shelves, and a large bookcase. "Well Titan, this is our new home. Lets go and get the rest of my boxes, then we can set up my room."

So the rest of the day the Graysons unload boxes and placed them in the room they belonged to. They had a nice sized kitchen, a dinning room, a living room, an office for her dad, a master bedroom with a master bathroom attached to it, an extra bedroom for Ryan when he came for visits, and a basement that was going to be a laundry room and a training area, because Mari and her father both were very good at a lot of different types of martial arts.

That night, because they still didn't have any food in the house, they ordered pizza, pepperoni to be exact. Mari ate up in her room while she unpacked. She had packed thirteen boxes, and so far only unpacked four of them when her father came up. "Hey, Mar-Bear, how's the unpacking going?" he asked at her door way.

"Dad, don't call me that, its small and childish, and only Ry can call me that." Mari whined, not even looking up form her packing.

"Need a hand with unpacking?" he asked already helping. Mari smiled; she knew that even if she said no he would still help.

"Leave the clothes for later, I'll work on that tomorrow. If I fall asleep before tomorrow." she said right before yawning. "Maybe I should stop for the night. It is," she said looking over at were her digital alarm clock was, "time for me to plug it in." she mentioned, noticing that she forgot to plug it in. "I'm going to head to bed. Good night Dad, tell Mom I said good night. Come on Ti, time for bed." Mari got into bed with Titan at the foot of her bed. Her dad kissed her good night, turned off her light shut her door and went down stairs to help Kori unpack.

"She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow." he told his wife after giving her a kiss. "What are you unpacking?" he asked as she opened a small box he didn't know was packed.

"Old pictures." she said handing him one. It was a picture of five teens that looked really weird. There was an African American boy with robotic parts, a boy with green skin with green hair and eyes and had a small fang and pointy ears, a girl with a blue clock with the hood up, and there was a boy with a mask dressed in spandex that looked like a stoplight, he was always next to a girl with really long red hair, green eyes, and a big smile on her perfectly tanned face. The one she handed him, they were at the park. The robotic teen was holding a football and was laughing at the little green kid, who was trying to make the hooded girl smile. Said girl looked like she was going to hurt the green boy, but if you were to look closely you could see a small blush on her face. The only ones looking at the camera was the red haired girl and the masked teen where standing next to each other, the masked one had his arm around her. "But these, are my favorite ones." she said handing him a picture with just two teens, the red head, and the masked one, they were dancing at what looked like a prom, they were in full uniform. But it looked like they were lost in each others faces. The other one was of the same two, this time the two were kissing at the pizza place. The odds were that they didn't know that someone was taking their picture.

"I like these too." he said before kissing his wife. The two of them finished unpacking the photos from the old days and went to bed also, getting ready for their first full day back in Jump city.

The next day Richard had to go to work so that left Mari and Kori home by themselves. The girls finished unpacking and went to see what was around the town they just moved to. Mari spent the whole time repeating over and over again how she wished she was back home. Kori just shook her head; this is going to be a long two days before Mari went to school.


	5. First Dinner

Chapter four

Mari spent most of the next day up in her room, which left Kori downstairs cleaning and making a grocery list. After an hour of not hearing a sound, she went upstairs to check on her daughter. When she got up there, she saw that her window was open. Knowing her daughter, Kori stuck her head out the window and looked up. Sure enough, Kori saw Mari up on the roof with a book in her hands. She knew that Mari loved heights and the sun and moon, but mostly the moon. "Hey Mari, I'm heading to the grocery store, want to come?"

"Not really, but do you think you could pick me up stuff for spaghetti? Please?" Mari replied, not even looking up form her book. Kori always thought that she was just like Rachel when she did that. When the Titans separated, Rachel and the other told each other their aliases. Thought Kori didn't stay Kori Anders for very long. "Hey, when am I going to start going to school? It's starting to get boring around here."

"You start tomorrow. I have a present for you also; I want to give it to you when your father gets home. I'll be back later. Don't stay out here too long without some sunscreen." she added before bringing her head back through the window and leaving.

Once Kori came home an hour later, Mari helped her put away groceries and made spaghetti for dinner. Her dad came home at almost the exact same time Mari finished the spaghetti. This was their first sit down dinner at the new house. After dinner, Kori and Richard did the dishes. It was one of their traditions'; whoever made dinner didn't have to do dishes. They all sat down in the living room. "So where is my present?" Mari said, looking like a hyperactive bunny.

"Here." Kori handed the girl a large box. Mari did what every child does when they get a present: shook it like a maraca. "It's for school tomorrow." She added as Mari tore open the wrapping and opened the box. In the box their was a plaid blue skirt, a white button up shirt, something Mari guessed was some sort of tie thing, and a bunch of things that looked they were for a private school.

"You're sending me to a private school?!" Mari asked, still looking at the skirt. "Why private school? Back in Gotham where I was the daughter of the Richard Grayson and the adoptive granddaughter to the Bruce Wayne when my face was plastered all over I still went to public school. Why now?!" she asked in one breath.

"We thought you would like this school. The sports teams there play your old school in sports and you're already registered, so you are going no matter what." her father said looking at his daughter. In public, he wore sunglasses to cover his eyes, which his daughter followed into doing. He thought that was a little cute. "I'm taking you tomorrow, your mother is going to be busy," he added. "Also, we have one more present. Here, I hope you like it." He handed her a smaller box.

"I hope it's not school mandatory," Mari mumbled before opening the box. There, in a long rectangular box laid a black choker with a blue heart on it.

"So you will always something to remind you of us." her mother said when she saw her daughter staring at the necklace.

"Thanks, you two. I'm still mad about the private school but… I'll try to lower the madness," Mari said, hugging her parents. "I'm going to bed. 'Night. Come on Titan, time for bed." she and Titan went upstairs to get ready for a big day.

That night Mari dreamt of four teens with strange colored clothes flying before she woke the next morning.


	6. First Day

Okay, I know that I have been forgetting this so here it is…

Disclaimer: Nothing has changed. The only difference is I now have chocolate milk. I like chocolate milk!!

Chapter Five

The Next Day

The next morning was very hectic; Mari woke up late, and then she couldn't figure out the tie thing, which caused her and her dad to both be late. By the time Mari and her father got to school, Mari was half an hour late. After finally getting her schedule, locker, locker combination, and a lecture from the principal about being late (sent to both Mari and her father), Mari was finally at the door to her homeroom class.

After opening the door, Mari had never been so happy that she won the fight with her dad about her wearing her sunglasses to school this morning. "Um, is this Mrs. Stone's class?" Mari asked, trying not to sound nervous.

"Yes it is," said a woman who was behind a desk. She was tall with dark skin and had her brown hair in a bun on the back of her head. "You must be the new student. My name is Mrs. Stone, welcome to Jump City High Academy. For right now I want you to sit with Elle. Elle?" Mrs. Stone asked, looking for a student. Finally a head popped out from behind a textbook. "Elle, I want you to meet Mari, she's going to sit with you. Also, put away the Portable Game Station VI before another teacher sees you with it," Mrs. Stone said to the black-haired girl with streaks.

"Fine," replied Elle. She put it in a messenger bag that was oddly decorated. When Mari sat down, Elle introduced herself, "HI. My name's Arella, but everyone calls me Elle. And you are…?"

"Mari, Mari Grayson." Elle gave an audible gasp. "Yeah the daughter of Richard Grayson." Mari added in a very bored tone. Elle stared at Mari for a long time.

"Cool." Elle finally added. "Well, there are two other people who sit at this table with use; my brother Joey, and our friend Kevin. I think you'll like them. So what is your schedule?" Elle asked, looking at the piece of paper in Mari's hand. She then gave a low whistle. "You have some pretty smart classes there. I think you have the same as my bro, don't really know."

"Thanks. You mean you don't have the same classes as me?" Mari asked sounding a little sad.

"Yea. I'm a straight C plus student," Elle said proudly. Right before Mari had a chance to laugh, three girls came walking up with a blond leading the pack.

"Hi, I'm Kitty. This is Kathy and Joanna. You'd be wise, Newbie, to make friends with us and not this animal hugger," the blond said gesturing toward Elle. "I rule the school. If you stick with me, I can open new doors for you." Kitty seemed to be pretty much a stereotypical blond; she even had a pink purse and was follower by clones.

"I can make my own friends, thank you very much, Blondie," Mari said to Kitty. Kitty huffed off with her two clones following.

"Well, that was fun." Elle said sarcastically.

"Is she normally like that?" Mari asked, feeling like she already hated her.

"Yes," Elle added before the bell rang. "Hey, meet me in the cafeteria, then you can meet my bro and Kev."

"Where are they, anyways?" Mari asked. She had been wondering that the whole class period.

Looking up from her books, she replied "Football practice, I think. See ya later!"

"So the first part of the day was very long for Mari. When the bell rang for lunch, Mari couldn't get out of the room fast enough. While walking down the hall to her locker, a boy ran into her.

"Hey, watch where you're going, newbie," the boy said before stepping on some of her papers.

"Jerk!" Mari shouted back at him. Her day was already bad; now she was angry at someone she didn't know.

After putting her stuff in her locker, she hurried to the cafeteria. It took what felt like forever for her to get to through the lunch line she went over to were Elle was. When she got there a boy was in the middle of a story. "… And she shouts at me and calls me a Jerk."

"Hey Elle, sorry I'm late, there was this guy and…" she stopped. The boy telling the story turned around.

"_You!_" Mari said at the same time as the boy.

""Mari," Elle started to say, trying not to laugh, "this is my twin brother, Joey." Elle said before her and the other boy started laughing. "And this is Kevin. Guys, this is Mari, she's new and is in our homeroom."

"Oh really? So how do you like Mrs. Stone?" Kevin asked, putting his chin in his hands, looking incredibly interested in what she had to say.

"I really like her. We don't have a lot of teachers that are nice like her back in Gotham," Mari replied

"Good answer," Elle said. Mari gave her a confused look. "Kevin is her son." Kevin smiled then started to eat his lunch, which Mari noticed had a lot of meat.

"So, Elle told me you two are on the football team. What are your positions?" she asked, trying not to look at Joey.

"I'm the best running back around," Kevin answered. "And Joey over here is our quarterback. So what is it like in Gotham?" Kevin asked, trying to keep this going incase Mari and Joey started arguing.

"A little like this, except I went to public school with my friends Cam, Ivy, Peter, Balie, And Charlie."

"So, do you have someone back home? You know, like a boyfriend?" Elle asked, taking a bite of salad.

"Kind of, yes. Charlie and I have been going out for about a year now, but don't tell my dad, he would freak!" she said taking a bite into her sandwich.

Elle started demanding more details. "Wait, Charlie Red? As in the youngest player on the Varsity team at Gotham? That's your boyfriend?" Kevin asked with a loud voice. Joey stopped mid-chew of his sandwich. Mari plastered a fake smile on her face while trying to get Kevin to shut up.

"Maybe," she said through clenched teeth, "but if you shout it to the world I won't tell you."

"Wait," Joey said, finally speaking, "you're telling us that you go out with that baboon? He tried to punch me at the last game we played against them." He looked like he was really mad. Right before Mari could reply, the bell rung.

"Bye Elle. Nice to meet you Kevin. _Joey_," Mari said, adding the last word with venom.

The rest of the day was horrible. She found out that Joey was in all of her classes along with Kitty (though no one knew how), and none of her teachers liked her but Mrs. Stone.

At the end of the day, Mari was walking home when Elle, Kevin, and Joey caught up with her. "Hey, why walking this way?" Kevin asked.

"My new house is right down this street. Is that okay with you?" Mari added laughing a little from that small joke.

"Wait. Is your address 5269 Madison Dr.?" Elle asked. Mari nodded, looking a little scared.

"Well then, welcome to the neighborhood, neighbor!" Kevin said, hitting Mari on the back. As they walked down the street, Mari asked about the neighborhood. They all told their small stories until they came to the block. "Hey, do you want to go to the carnival? We have a booth that I have to work, but off later and we can all hang out. It's the day after tomorrow."

"Let me ask my parents. My mom will definitely say yes. My dad, on the other hand, is another story. I'll tell you tomorrow. Bye."

"Bye," everyone else called back.

Mari walked in the front door smelling something cooking. "Hey Mom, I'm home. You're not cooking are you?" sounding scared. Kori could not cook. Whenever she tried, she made some very weird things. The last thing she made tried to walk off the plate.

"Yes and no. It's those pre-baked cookies. They're almost done. Grab some milk out of the refrigerator, will you dear?"

"Sure. Hey Mom, there's a carnival Saturday, and I've made some new friends and they invited me to meet them. Can we go please?" she said, giving her mom the face she learned from her mom, who had learned it from Beast Boy, although Mari didn't know this.

"Maybe, let me talk to your father when he gets home. Finish your snack then start your homework," Kori said before she started to think of ways to talk Rich into it.

The rest of the night, Mari did her homework, then watched TV with her mom. At seven, Richard walked through the door and got attacked with hugs from Mari and a kiss from Kori.

"Mom ask him. Now," Mari said before walking upstairs, "I have to take a shower and get ready for bed. Night, Dad," she said running up the stairs. Richard and Kori went to their room to change.

"Hey, Honey, Mari wanted to know if she could go to a carnival Saturday and I was thinking of letting her go. We could go and hang out and maybe ride the Ferris wheel. I heard that there was going to be fireworks at the end of the night… like the first time we went to the carnival. Plus, Mari made some new friends and said we could meet their parents. Come on, I think it would be fun," she said, giving the puppy dog pout she knew he couldn't say no to.

"I think it might be fun to go. Sure, we can go. I'll tell Mari later after her shower." Right after he said that heard a loud "yes," and a thud. Mari was listening to the conversation through the air vent under her desk, and had probably hit her head. He was glad that they had spoken vaguely about the past so Mari didn't learn anything.

That night as Richard went up to say good night to Mari, he told her that she could go and meet her friends' parents. Mari agreed and couldn't wait to see Elle tomorrow and tell her. She went to sleep and had a big smile on her face, and her face, and her parents had dreams about past fireworks, giant chickens, and purple squid-like gloop.

There you go, chapter five. I know that this was long but I had to introduce different characters and that sort of stuff. Bare with me people. Please. I'm begging you.


	7. Carnival Night

Ok. I'm still alive. I have had my first case of writer's block. With the school year about to end I have to get ready for high school next year. I may, just to warn you, not have any new chapters up until the new school year. Sorry.

Disclaimer: I own Dittaly Squat. Literally. He's sitting right here next to me. Hi!

* * *

Chapter Six

The next day, Mari told Elle she could go. They spent the rest of the day talking about the carnival and different things. Sometimes Kevin would join them. Mari and Joey still gave each other the cold shoulder. At the end of the day, they all walked home with not too heavy backpacks. Elle gave Mari her phone number so they could talk later.

The rest of the evening was somewhat normal; Richard came home late, so they ordered pizza and watched TV like normal people would do. Right after Mari finished her pizza, Elle called. Most of the time, unless it was Cam, Ivy, Charlie, or Ryan, Mari would try to get off as fast as she could, yet Mari and Elle talking almost all night. The only thing that stopped them was Elle's mom yelling at her to get off the phone. After getting off the phone, she laid down in bed and started thinking about the carnival until she fell asleep.

The next morning, Richard made waffles. Right after breakfast Mari did her chores (which didn't take that long), and Elle called to make their plans for that night.

Later that night, around six, the Graysons left their house to go to the carnival. It too about five minutes to get to the pier were the carnival was being held. Mari looked like a little kid, as a little kid, she ran right out of the car toward the pier.

It didn't take that long to get through the crowd toward the water gun booth that Elle was working. As soon as Mari saw Elle, she waved at her. Elle waved back at her right before she jumped over the counter and was yelled at by the adult watching her. Right before Elle ran over to Mari and her parents, she waved some people over.

"Hey, Mari. You must be Mr. and Mrs. Grayson. I'm Elle; it's nice to meet you," Elle said, introducing herself to Mari's parents. Mari was shocked at how politely Elle was speaking. "I would like to introduce you to my parents," Elle started as two people started to come into view. She was going to introduce them until Kori interrupted them.

"Rachel?!" Kori almost shouted. Rachel stopped. For the first time many people had ever seen Rachel smiled. She handed Gar her purse before running to Kori and hugging her. Gar was trying to catch up to her when he saw Richard.

While this was going on, Elle and Mari were off to the side staring at their parents. "Oh, my gawd!" they said at the same time.

"My mom just smiled," Elle said, staring at their moms before looking at Mari.

"My mom always acts like that," Mari said, looking humiliated.

Back with the parents, who were catching up with what each other missed. Rachel went back to her usual look, no smile, though she was really happy. Rachel and Gar told Kori and Richard that they were married. You probably could have knocked Kori and Richard over with a feather for about twenty seconds before they regained their posture and congratulated Rachel and Gar late for it.

"Wait. So you guys know each other?" Mari asked, looking socked at the parents and looking back at Elle for help.

"Yes. Why do you look so surprised?" Rachel asked the kids. Before the girls could answer, four more people walked up. Two of the four looked strangely familiar…

"Hey Elle. Hey Mari." Kevin said walking up with his mom, his dad, and Joey. "Elle, shouldn't you be at the booth?"

"Oh shoot! Mari, want to come with?" Elle said as she started running toward the booth. Mari followed her.

"Later Mom, Bye Dad," she called back.

"Hey Rach, Gar. Who are you talking to?" Vic asked, looking behind them to see who it was. As soon as he looked, he saw red hair. "Kori?"

"Vic? Oh my gosh!" She hugged him," Karen, how have you been." They all went on just like earlier. The boys starter to back off slowly and quietly toward the rides and booths.

The girls were sitting around talking because Elle didn't have any more customers, when some big jocks came up and started making fun of Elle and flirting with Mari.

"Look, buys," Mari started saying, reaching behind her, "why don't we have a blast?" She finished before squirting them with the high powered water gun. Some people started to look (part of them being the parents). By the time Mari stopped squirting them, the water had pushed them to the strength tester. The leader of the group landed on the platform and set the little ball straight up till it hit the bell. By then, a lot of people were staring at them. When the bell rang, people started laughing. Mari and Elle high-fived each other and laughed until their parents started walking up to them. They stopped and looked like deer in the headlights. They knew that this could only mean one thing: they were I trouble.

"Arella Marie Logan!"

"Mari Robin Luna Grayson!" both mothers yelled. People started to go back to their own businesses. "You two are in _so_ much trouble," Rachel said, scaring both the girls and others. "First, would you like to tell us what happened?"

"Well, these boys came over and started messing with us and flirting with Mari, so she blasted them with the water gun and squirted them with it," Elle said, hoping the adults would believe her.

"What she said," Mari added.

"We'll talk about this later, young lady," Rachel said. Kori nodded in agreement. Both girls hung their heads low until the parents left. As soon as they were out of ear shot, the two girls started to laugh really hard.

"Hey, lunatics!" Kevin yelled. "Your shift is done, do you want to ride the Ferris wheel? Joey is coming as soon as he wins something form that booth." He pointed toward the Ferris wheel.

"Shoot. Hold on, I have to get tickets," Elle said when they started walking toward the Ferris wheel.

"Dang, you're right. I need some too. Mari, could you maybe go and get Joey and stop him from spending his life saving?" Kevin said while the two of them walked off, not giving Mari any time to eject the question.

As she walked over to the booth she could hear Joey say things like "I'm the star quarter back, I should be able to hit ten little bottles down." and "My dad can do this, why can't I?" When she reached him, he was laying down more money and getting more balls.

"So Hotshot, trying to buy the booth?" Mari asked with a smirk on her face.

"Ha ha Very funny. Why are you over here?" Joey said throwing a ball. He hit the back tarp.

"'Cause we're all riding the Ferris wheel and the others wanted me to get you before you spent every last thing you own," Mari said, watching him miss the next two throws. "Let me make a deal with you. If I can knock over all of the cans, you start being somewhat nice to me and you come ride the ride with us, and if I don't, I really don't care what you do and you can spend all of your money. Deal?"

"Deal," Joey said, knowing that she probably wouldn't knock them over.

"Three please," Mari said, putting down money. They first toss hit the first one. Joey laughed. This was going to be an easy deal. After hearing Joey laugh, Mari got really confident with herself. She brought back the ball, aimed it, and really threw it hard. She threw it so hard, it knocked down the bottles and it went through the tarp.

"WINNER!!" the man behind the booth shouted. "Here's your prize, Little Lady." He handed her a big stuffed chicken. "Here, tell them you finally won it." Mari said, handing it to Joey.

"Aww, but I really wanted the big dog," Joey said, purposely trying to bug Mari. Mari started to walk away toward the others, who were saving a place for them in line. When she passed Joey, she hit him on the back of the head.

"Sorry. Joey wanted one last try at the booth. He actually won something," Mari said. Joey gave her a look that said "When did this happen?" The line started to move. When a cart came by, the guy put Elle and Kevin on it. When Mari went to go sit with them, the guy told her that there was two to a seat. The next one came and Mari was forced to sit with Joey and his new chicken. Things went pretty smoothly and quietly. When they reached the top, the ride jerked to a stop. "What the heck? Why did we stop?" Mari asked looking around.

"Look. Just look out that way." Joey said pointing out toward the ocean. Right before Mari could ask him what he was talking about, fireworks went off out off of the coast. Mari just stared in awe. She loved fireworks, just like her mom. The whole time Mari was looking at the fireworks, Joey looked at her and saw a really beautiful smile on her face. Mari turned and saw him looking at her. She blushed. "What are you looking at?" She asked a little rudely to try to hide the blush on her face.

"Uh, nothing, just I thought that I saw a fight over there. It was nothing," he replied hiding the blush that crept onto his face. "Here comes the finale!" He yelled, trying to distract her. Mari and Joey both watched as the fireworks fired off right after another.

Back down on the ground, the parents went to different areas. Kori and Richard walked off toward the pier. They walked hand in hand. "I'm happy that you talked me into this," Richard said, kissing Kori's hand. "Do you know what this reminds me of?"

"You mean the time I was taken by a purple glop thing, my sister came, tried to takeover my life then set me up so I was almost arrested by intergalactic police?"

"Well, no. I meant the carnival before were I think that I may have started falling in love with you.

Kori laughed. "Yes. Hey look, firework!" She exclaimed happily. She loved fireworks. While Kori watched the fireworks, Richard looked around a little. He looked toward the Ferris wheel and saw at the very top Mari was with someone. 'It looks like Gar and Rachel's boy. Um, Joey, I think.' he thought. Right when he was about to start think of ways to get rid of him, he hears Kori squeal happily. He looked and saw the finale start. Richard started to smile when he saw Kori smile. He completely forgot what he what thinking about.

When the Ferris wheel finally restarted, they got off. Elle and Kevin thought that Joey and Mari were starting to act a little weird. "So what are you going to do with the giant chicken, Joe?" Elle asked finally paying attention to the chicken Joey was carrying.

"Oh, right. I forgot. I'm going to send it to Clair," He said.

Mari looked at him. "Cool, just one quick question. Who's Claire?" Mari asked.

"Claire is a friend of ours. She moved away right before you moved in. Also she's Joey's girlfriend," Elle said, sounding like it really wasn't a big deal. Mari felt a little sad, though she didn't know why. "Hey, there are the adults." The adults all started to walk toward the kids. They all told each other good night. Elle and Mari made plans to meet tomorrow. Mari went straight to bed as soon as she got home and couldn't wait for the next day.

* * *

That's the chapter.

If anyone can gusse what episode I kind of based this chapter off of, you get the title of Teen Titans Episode Know-It-All. Also, if Rachel being ooc bothers anyong, I apologise.


	8. The Fight

What's up ya'll. I said that the last chapter would be the last one before the new school year but, surprise! Here is chapter seven to The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree.

Disclaimer: Really, do I always have to go through with this.

Chapter Seven

Mari had one of the best weekends she had had in a while. Elle and the others were really fun. They went to the mall, the park, the movies and they ended the night at the pizza parlor. Mari found out that Elle was a vegetarian and Kevin loved his meat; the two fought a lot when they ordered the pizza. Joey and Mari got along a little better.

On Monday, they all walked to school together. Mari was still trying to get used to the skirt. While they walked, they talked about this and that. Mari told them about how she was one of the best skateboarders at her old school. The school was about five minuets away form their houses. When they went inside, they went different directions; Elle went one way, Kevin went another, and Mari and Joey went the same way because, strangely, their lockers were right next to each other.

"Hey, look." Joey said, breaking the silence that had come over them. I want to apologize for yelling at you on your first day. I was in a bad mood and I took it out on you. I'm sorry." Joey looked very genuine. Mari looked at him, smiled behind her sunglasses, and held her hand out. Joey saw this, took her hand and shook it.

"No problem." They both opened their lockers and grabbed their books. "Could you answer one question for me?" Mari asked as they walked toward their class.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Why is Elle's bag decorated the way it is? Did she buy it like that?" Joey laughed. Mari looked at him like he was crazy.

No. She decorated it herself. She is actually really talented when it comes to fashion, as you could tell at the mall. She was really bored and had some spare money and she went a little crazy with the buttons." He added before they got into the class. Mrs. Stone walked in before the bell. Her hair was up in a bun as it normally was.

Good morning class," she greeted them. Mrs. Stone was also their English teacher, as well as their homeroom teacher. "I have something exciting for you." As soon as she said that, Mari put her head down. Her old teachers would say that right before they gave a pop quiz. "I want you all to write a paper on your hero." Mari's head shot up. She loved writing reports on things. She loved digging deep and getting the truth. Many people thought that she would be a great journalist. Many other people started to moan. "That means the person you admire. The person you look up to. It can be a parent a fictional character, a celebrity, I really don't care. In this paper, tell me about this person, what they do, and why you look up to them." Right as she was about to write something on the board, the classroom phone rang. "Okay, go ahead and discus ideas with the people at your table."

Everyone started to talk. "So who are you guys going to do your report on?" Mari asked, trying to figure out who she should do her report on.

"I'm going to do it on my mom. A little bit of work, but maybe she'll be so flattered that I will get some extra credit." Kevin said like he knew what he was going to do. They all quickly looked back at the teacher. Mari doubted that the teacher was going to be flattered by it.

"One if us will do our mom," Joey started with his nose in a book.

"And the other will do our dad," Elle finished, drawing in a sketch pad. "Who are you doing, Mari?"

"I really don't know. I could either do my parents, my uncle, or my grandfather." Mari said twirling a necklace that had a ring on it. "I was also thinking about these people in these stories that my mom used to tell me. She just shrugged her shoulders and looked out the window. As she looked toward the ocean she saw something standing in the distance.

"Hey guys, what is that all the way out there?" she asked, pointing toward where she was looking at.

Everyone looked. "Oh, that's Titans Tower. Some people believe that the Teen Titans used to live there, others think that it was built by the government to be a landing dock for space ships to land. I'm more of a believer in the first one myself." Elle said looking at it.

"So wait, if people don't believe that the Teen Titans lived there, then why do they call it Titans Tower?"

Elle opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but nothing came out. "I really don't know. You should ask Mrs. Stone." They all looked over to their teacher again, who was at her desk grading papers. Right before Mari was about to get up to talk to her, the bell rang. Everyone grabbed their stuff and left. Mari grabbed her bag and walked toward the teacher.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Stone?"

"Hey, Mari, can I help you?" Mrs. Stone said looking up from her papers.

"Um, I was wondering about that big T shaped building out by the bay?"

"You mean Titans Tower? What about it?" Mrs. Stone asked, looking serious.

"Well, Elle and the others were telling me about it and how some people don't believe that the Teen Titans lived there. Well I was wondering why people still call it Titans Tower," Mari asked.

"Because even though people don't believe in the Titans, they still know that deep down in their hearts the Titans still existed. You should get to class. See you later." Mari met up with Joey in their next class, which was science. She just couldn't pay attention; she was thinking about the Teen Titans.

Later, Mari was a little late getting to her locker. By the time she got there, no one was in the hallways. She put her stuff up and closed her locker door. When it shut she saw Kitty, the girl that had insulted her, standing right there and staring at her. "Wow. You know, you should wear a bell."

"Look, you little brat," she said, spouting venom with every word. "I know a lot about you. You're little miss rich girl with the rich grandfather. And the rich daddy, who always gets what his little brat of a daughter wants."

"Look here, talk about me all you want, but don't talk about my family." Mari looked like she was going to kill her. Kitty's "clones," Kathy and Joanna, where standing around behind Mari. Mari started to walk away, bumping Kitty's shoulder.

Hey, I'm not done talking to you." Kitty grabbed Mari's hair, tuned her around, and punched her in the face, and attacked her. Mari started to block her hits and hitting her back. The fight started to get a little bad when some teachers finally came to stop it. One of the teachers was Mrs. Stone.

"Hey! Stop! Break it up you two! The other teacher said. He grabbed Kitty off the top of Mari of Mari and held her back while Mrs. Stone held Mari. She looked down at Mari and saw that there was a green glow from behind her sunglasses. Wait, a GREEN GLOW?!

Mari's mom was called into the principal's office. To say she was mad would be an understatement. As she walked into the office, she saw her daughter slouched in her chair trying not to be seen by her mom. "Hey Mom, how has your day been?" Mari said nervously. If looks could kill, Mari would be six feet under.

"Wait till your father hears about this young lady." she turned to the principal. "Hello, I'm Kori Grayson, Mari's mother."

"Hello, ma'am. I'm Mrs. Johnson, her principal." The woman that said this was sitting behind a big wooden desk. "I think you may know Mrs. Stone."

"Yes. Hello Karen." Karen smiled and nodded.

For what felt like a long time to Mari, they sat there and talked about the fight. Mari told them over twenty times that she didn't start the fight, Kitty did, but no one listened to her.

"Mari," Mrs. Stone said, "why don't you get your things? Mrs. Johnson, may I speak to Mrs. Grayson alone?" She looked a little nervous when she asked. Mari just walked out and left.

"Sure. It was nice to meet you, Kori," Mrs. Johnson said before she left.

"Kori, does Mari have your powers?" Karen asked as soon as the principal was out of the room.

"What?" Kori asked, wondering if she heard her right.

"Does Mari have your powers?" Karen repeated a little slower.

"No, she doesn't. Why?"

"When another teacher and I pulled them apart, I saw that she had a green glow to her sunglasses."

Kori just looked worried. "Thank you for telling me Karen."

Mari was walking to her locker when she saw the others waiting for her. "Hey, why weren't you at lunch?" Kevin asked leaning up against the other lockers.

"I'm heading home. I got suspended." Mari said acting very cool about it. You could push them over with a feather they were so shocked.

"You what?" Elle asked, looking at Mari grabbing all of her books.

"Yeah, I got into a fight with Kitty."

"That was a bad move, girl," Kevin said, looking worried for her. "Kitty's mom is the Vice-Principal."

"Oh, great. I'll see you guys later. Bye," Mari said before walking away. This was going to be hard to explain to her dad.

The car ride home was very quiet. When they got home, Mari went up to her room. She still had to decide who to do her project on.

Mari spent the day avoiding her mom. She knew that she was very mad at her for fighting in school. Kori never did really like that Mari learned how to fight at all.

As she looked out the window, Mari saw Titans Tower again and again. She thought it over, and decided to check them out on the internet. She just glanced at the things, but she saw _so _much! She decided that she was going to do her report on them.

Later that night, Richard came home. He saw the look on Kori's face and knew something happened. What did she do?" he asked, putting his stuff down.

"Our daughter got into a fight at school with another student. I told you we shouldn't have taught her how to fight!" Kori was mad! Richard was told everything that the principal had her. "And Karen told me that she saw Mari's eyes glow green!" Richard stopped dead in his tracks. He knew that Mari might have her powers, but he was worried she would get hurt.

Richard went up to Mari's room and gave her a lecture about how it was bad to fight, especially in school. Mari felt bad. As soon as she left, she started her research. She was going to need something to do for the next three weeks…

O. K. I have a one-shot coming out very soon. Its called My Angel. Keep an eye out for it. Also, I'm sorry to say this, but I would really like some more reviews. I would really like it. So please, if our reading this please review. I'm starting to feel very sad.


	9. This Kiss

Okay, a few notes before I start this.

One: Just so you know, Mari knows that her mom is not from the U.S., but she thinks she's from a little island off of Greenland. Just so you know.

Two: I don't own the Teen Titans. I do own Mari's ring tone, thought.

Chapter 8

For the first few days, Mari tried to avoid her parents, which was easier said than done in their new house. Mrs. Stone also thought that even though Mari couldn't go to school, she should still be able to do her school work. So every day Mari would either go over to Kevin's house or Elle and Joey's house. That was the only time she could see the others.

Mari also tried to get some research done for her project, since it was due the after she returned to school. So she decided to go to the one person she knew that knew a lot about the Titans.

"Hey Mom?" Mari asked. Kori was watching TV.

Yes, sweetheart?"

"Um, well, could you tell me about the Teen Titans?" The look on Kori's face was of both shock and question.

"Wow. You haven't asked about them in a long time. Why the sudden interest?"

Mari didn't want anyone to know who she was doing her report on. So she did the only thing she could do: lie. "Well, I remember that you told me the Teen Titans were from Jump City, so I just wanted to find out more about them, that's all." If Mari hadn't been wearing her sunglasses, Kori would have seen that Mari was lying.

You know what, let me show you something. But don't tell your father about this." Kori said, leading Mari up the stairs to her mom and dad's room. "Have I ever told you where you get your middle name from?"

Mari looked confused. "Uh…yeah. Your mom, Grandma Luna."

"No, your other middle name. Robin?"

"Nah, not exactly."

"Well…" Kori reached down in her closet. She grabbed a she box. "You're actually named after the leader of the Teen Titans." You could have knocked Mari over with a feather.

"Wait a sec. You told me that it was because my eyes are robin egg blue."

"Well, yes and no. See, the Titans were big when I immigrated over to this country, so I wanted to learn all about them." Kori flipped over the box. All sorts of things came out, such as photos, newspaper clippings, and a notebook. "I guess that you could say I was a little obsessed. I had a huge crush on Robin. You dad thought that it was cute. Here." She handed Mari the shoe box after putting everything back in. "You can have this. I really don't need it any more. But remember, don't tell you father. Please."

"Thanks, Mom. I won't tell Dad, I promise." Mari kissed her mom on the cheek as she ran to her room. The first thing Mari did was look though the notebook. There was data, some on each Titan, and even a thing called a Silkie. The paper was old, though, so she transferred everything onto separate files on her laptop under obscure file names instead of the Titans' names so her dad wouldn't know.

Mari started writing her paper. She wanted to get this done. She finished her rough draft, figuring that she could do the final draft tomorrow. She started to think that she should add to her mom's notes.

Later that night, Richard went to check in on Mari, since she wasn't down for dinner.

"Mari? Mare-Bear, are you ok?" When Richard entered, the only light that was on was her desk light. He then saw that Mari was asleep at her with her laptop still on. "Man, you are too much like me," he mumbled, picking Mari up from her chair and putting her in bed. "Night, Sweetie." As he walked out the door, he hears something that put a smile on his face.

"Love you, Dad" was heard from the sleeping girl.

That night, Mari dreamt that she met the Teen Titans. She couldn't wait to do more research.

The next morning, Mari went to the library, which had a lot of information on the Titans. To get home, she had to use her skateboard to swerve around people. The second she got home, it was time to go to Elle and Joey's house to do homework. She didn't have time to empty out her backpack, so she just threw her homework in it, grabbed her phone, and tried to run over to the Logan's house.

"Sorry I'm late. I had to go to the library. Sorry." everyone seemed just to have brushed it off and started to work, although Elle was a little surprised that people besides her "geek of a brother" read.

Everyone was working and Mari was trying to figure out a math word problem when all sudden, they heard a tiny voice. "Pick up the phone! Ring Ring! Hello it's me, your phone! Pick up the phone!" Mari jumped and looked embarrassed. "Heheh. Sorry, I'll just answer that." She walked into another area and answered.

"Hello… Oh! Oye chica, ques es?… Como es la antigua Goth haciendo?… Eso es bueno. Como Ivy? Que? Elle esta alli? Hello? Hey, what are you doing over at Cam's?… Again?…Look, can I call you back?? I'm doing homework… Don't gasp! I've got to go, tell Cam I say bye. Bye." She turned around to walk back to the table when she saw everyone staring at her. "What?"

"Was that Spanish?" Kevin asked, looking astonished.

"Yeah, I learned when I was little. My friend Cam taught me."

"Wow, could you help me with some of my Spanish homework? To me, it's all gibberish." Kevin asked, looking ashamed.

"Me too," Joey added.

"Me three," Elle added lastly. They all pushed their Spanish toward Mari.

"Look, I will help you all as soon as I figure out this word problem. I hate these."

"Here," Joey said. "Let me help you. All you have to do is change the words around. Like this." He looked at the problem, grabbed her notebook, and rewrote the problem. "Just change the words a little so you can understand it better. Elle used to have that problem, so that's how Mom helped her. Now help us! Senora Montez is evil!"

"Okay. What are your biggest problems?"

"The entire language," Joey, Elle, and Kevin mumbled. "We're trying to study for a test." Kevin added.

"When is the test?" Mari knew this was going to be a long study session.

"Next Monday," Elle said, looking down.

"Oh my gosh. Estoy rodeado de idiotas!" Everyone looked at her as if she was crazy. "You have no idea what I just said, do you?" All the others just shook their heads. "What do you know?"

"Uh, I know siesta. That's about it. The teacher uses it when she yells at me." Mari face-palmed.

For the next few minutes, Mari tried to teach them what she knew and ways to study. They continued with that until it was time for Mari to go home. Since it was dark out, Joey offered to walk Mari home. "So," Joey said, trying to start a conversation, "do you think that we'll be ready for out test?"

"Well, if you keep using the study helpers that I gave you guys, you might. And if you need help you guys can just call." Mari adjusted her backpack. She had completely forgotten all of the stuff in it.

"Here." Joey grabbed the bag. "Let me take this for you." When Mari let go of the bag, Joey fell flat on the ground. "What do you have in here? It weighs, like, a ton!"

I went to the library. I needed to get a few things. It doesn't weigh that much." She grabbed the bag back from Joey and slung it over her shoulder. "I can take it from here. Thanks for walking me home." Then Mari did something strange: she kissed Joey on the cheek. As soon as she came to her senses, she pulled back and ran inside.

No more than three seconds later, a loud crash was heard form the outside. Everyone looked outside to see a street light that had just broken. By this time, Joey was at his house. Everyone else was outside, trying to figure out what had happened to the light.

"I saw it get covered in black before it exploded!" The Logan's' elderly neighbor said.

Rachel, who was standing on her front stairs next to her husband, heard this. Her eyes grew huge. She looked over at Gar. They soon looked inside at where the twins were looking out the window. It was one of the things they feared the most: one of their kids had powers!

There you go! Like it? Love it? Let me know, please. Also, I really would like someone to review My Angel. I worked really hard on that. Also, I started High School yesterday and I may be writing less and less. Just so you know. R&R


	10. The Truth

Chapter 9

After the incident with Mari and Joey, there was an awkward feeling in the air whenever they were together.

When Mari went back to school, it was no different. Later as they turned in their papers, Mari was a little nervous. She didn't really know if her paper was any good, since it was about people some thought didn't even really exist.

If you were to sit at Mari and her friends' table, you could tell that something was up. Poor Elle and Kevin didn't know anything about it and felt too awkward to say anything. Mari and Joey were in chemistry class when they found out that they had to do a lab all week, and they were going to be partners. All through the first day, they tried not to talk to each other. That went well until Mari's hand slipped and it landed right onto Joey's. Soon after, many beakers and flasks blew up. The class was evacuated from the room.

When Kitty came up later …Well, she wasn't happy that the two of them were partnered up instead of him and her. As Mari walked by, she decided that Mari had to go. So she came up with a diabolical plan that involved Mari "falling" and going into a coma …some how. So as Mari came closer, Kitty stuck out her foot, hoping that her plan would work. The first part worked: Mari hit her foot head on and started to fall toward the locker. What she didn't plan was that Joey was right there. Mari landed in his arms with their faces about an inch apart. Those two just kept looking at each other in shock and didn't notice that light bulbs were exploding, lockers were bursting open, and many other things were happening. They would have stayed like that until Elle came running to them.

"Guys! This place is going to blow, we have to get out of here!" she shouted put as she ran by. They looked up and saw that everything was going crazy.

Everyone ran out and met up with their friends and teachers, wanting to figure out what was happening. Mrs. Stone saw Elle and the others and went to check on them. "Are you all okay?" She asked, sounding a little worried.

"We're fine, Mom. Don't worry. Any idea on what happened?" Kevin knew they all wanted answers.

"I don't have any idea. I was grading papers when desks stated flying through the air. I really don't think there will be school tomorrow. But you four will get your papers as soon as I'm done grading." They all looked nervous. Most of their parents were about, and in Mari's case, she didn't want them to. "I have to go talk to the principal about what we are going to do. Stay right here." She gave them that mother-like look that they all knew meant she meant business. Mrs. Stone came back a few minutes later after talking to a _much_ stressed out principal. "Well, looks like you are all dismissed. Go ahead and head back home. I will see you all later."

As they were all walking down the street, Mari stopped dead in her tracks. "Are you okay? You look as pale as my mom." Elle looked really worried, as did everyone else.

"Am I the only one that has a bad feeling?" They all looked at each other.

"What kind of bad feeling, 'something bad is going to happen' bad or 'I ate the mystery meat' bad?" As soon as those words left Kevin's mouth, everyone started at him.

"The first one. Why would I eat the mystery meat? Isn't that just suicidal?" The rest of the way home, the kids wouldn't stop talking, including Joey and Mari. There wasn't an awkward pause the entire time.

"Hey, do you all want to come and hang out at my house? I've got a bunch of snacks and video games. The second it was said, Kevin and Elle were racing to the Grayson's house.

"Are they normally like that?" She looked over at Joey, who just shrugged. They both walked up to Mari's front door where the other two were.

As they walked in, they saw Kori in the kitchen talking on the phone. "Hold on Karen, the kids just walked in." She turned toward them, "Hi, you guys. Grab anything you want from the fridge. Have fun!" She waited for the kids to leave the room before starting back up her conversation with Karen. "Are you sure it was like Rachel's powers?… You too?… I've had this feeling since we moved back here that something bad was happening. I think we really need to tell the kids the truth soon!… Okay, I'll call Rachel and tell her what I think…. Bye."

As Kori hung up the phone, Karen grabbed the last of the kids' papers to grade and saw that it was Mari's. She soon dropped the paper as if it were on fire. She kept rereading the first paragraph of the paper. The others just had to see this!

Later that night, everyone decided that they would all have dinner together at the Lagan's house. As they finished dinner, the kids went downstairs to hang out while the parents talked. Joey and Kevin were playing video games (which confused Mari a little) while Mari and Elle just sat and watched from behind. "Um, Mari? Can I tell you something?" Mari looked at Elle.

"Sure, you can tell me anything."

"I have really good hearing and smelling." Mari looked a little confused, and Elle saw this. Like, animal good."

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe that."

"I'll prove it. Go over to the other end of the room and say something very softly. I bet you that I will hear you." Mari got up, walked up to the other end of the room by the stairs. If someone was at Elle's end and looked, all they would see would be Mari's lips moving slightly.

Mari got up and walked back toward where Elle was at. "Okay, what did I say?"

"You said that the video game that Kevin and Joey are playing is way too loud and stupid. Also, you said something about being able to beat them." Mari's eyes grew. No one else knew that she played video games, or that fact that she could beat her dad at them too.

"You really do have good hearing. I'll just trust you about your smelling."

"Just do me one favor. Don't tell anyone. They will treat me like I'm a freak." Mari just smiled at her friend.

"I promise. As long as you don't tell my parents about dating X."

"Wait, I knew you were dating a guy named Charlie, but your also dating a guy named X? You little playeress!" The two of them started laughing.

"No. X and Charlie are the same person. His middle name is Xavier, after his dad. Two years ago, when his whole bad boy act started, he decided to stop using his first name and to be just X. I'm the only person who can call him Charlie."

The two girls kept talking until the boys came over. "We're bored. We're going to listen to what the parents are talking about. Want to join?" Kevin said. The two girls looked at each other and nodded. All four of them tiptoed up the stairs. They started walking toward the kitchen door. As they did so, they heard Mrs. Logan yelling a little bit. They all pressed their ears to the door as hard as they could without causing the swinging door to open.

"I will NOT tell my children about my past! I don't want them to know about some of the things that have happened to me!" Rachel sounded mad.

"Rae, I think we should tell them the truth. They have the right to know. If they do have powers, then it's good to help them control them now, rather then later in life," Gar said. Rachel looked at her husband and glared at him. She got up from her seat in his arms and walked over to the other end of the room.

"Our children are showing signs that they have powers. It would probably be best to tell them. Besides, I have had this bad feeling, and I think something is wrong." When Kori started talking about "her feeling," Rachel stopped. She looked at Kori, then to Karen.

"You too?" As she asked Karen nodded her head. Rachel started mumbling something that the kids couldn't hear. She walked back to were she was sitting.

"Okay, wait. How come all of you guys have 'that feeling'?" Gar started. "I mean, I know that it's Rachel's powers and all, but how come you have 'that feeling'?"

"It's a woman thing," Karen said in her chair I front of Victor.

As soon as Gar mentioned Rachel's powers, all of the kids went crazy. Right after Karen said something, Elle lost her balance and fell on Kevin, who fell on Joey, causing Mari to fall with them. All four of them fell through the door into the room. All the parents hopped out of their seats when hearing the thud of the falling teens.

"Uh, hehe, hey mom. What's up?" Elle asked while on top of everyone.

"How much of that did you hear?" Rachel asked, looking down at her kids and the others.

Mari pushed everyone off of her as she rolled over. "Enough to know that you're all hiding something from us." Mai looked more toward her parents. Richard was about to say something when Karen stepped in.

"Mari, uh, I have your paper here. I was just wondering if you could read your first paragraph for me." She handed Mari the paper.

"Uh, I'd like to, but I have this problem where if I read out loud, I, uh, misread, and it's kind of like dyslexia but different."

"Are you sure that she is your daughter?" Rachel said to Richard, pointing at Mari. Kori gave a look that was so scary that Rachel stepped back.

"Mari'and'r Robin Luna-ann Grayson!" Kori said looking at Mari.

"Mom, I just don't want - wait. What was that you said? That wasn't my name."

"I said your name. Just read the paper, and then I'll explain it after." Kori was acting very strange and Mari knew that.

"Fine." Mari grabbed the paper and started reading, "'I have many people in my life that I would count as my heroes. My parents are mainly my biggest one, as is my grandfather, and many others that would take too long to write. But my biggest hero, I haven't met before. Actually, it's more like heroes. My report is on the Teen Titans.' Do you want me to go on?" She looked at Karen. All she did was nod. Mari took a deep breath and continued. "'There were actually many more Titans around the world than what people think. But my report is mostly on the original five. Every Titan had an important role. Raven was very serious and knew a lot from all of the books she read.'" As Mari read this, Rachel smiled a little bit and snuggled closer to her husband. "'Beast Boy was a little bit of a goof-off, but was always there for his friends." Gar wouldn't stop smiling until Rachel nudged him in the stomach. "'Starfire was different from most people, but would help anybody that was in trouble, no matter who you were.'" Kori looked like she was about to start crying. "'Cyborg was second in command and was a very good inventor. He even made one of the most famous car ever. And no, I'm not talking about the Batmobile.'" Victor had to hold in very big laugh on that last part. ''And finally, there was Robin. He was leader, and one of the most well-known of the Titans, but not the most important one.' There, that was my first paragraph. Mom, are you crying?"

Everyone looked over at Kori, whose head was buried in her husband's shirt. "No, I'm laughing. You're really kicking yourself about not building the Batmobile, huh?" She said through hysterics. Everyone else started laughing; even Rachel gave a little chuckle. All of the teens just sat there and stared at their parents. They probably would have stayed like that until Lilly, Joey and Elle's little sister, came down in her little nightgown holding a blanket and sucking her thumb.

"We probably sop laughing like we're crazy so Lilly can get some sleep." Rachel got up and picked up the little girl and started taking her upstairs.

"I've got her, Mom." Elle took the sleeping girl from her mother and took her upstairs, but not before she stopped by Mari and asked her to fill her in when she got back.

"Okay. I read part of my paper; now tell me why you added all of that stuff onto my name." Kori sighed, stood up and started to fidget.

"Well, you see, uh, I'm not from here." kori looked very nervous.

"Yeah, I know, but what does that have to do with all the weird stuff added to my name?" Rachel looked over at Kori and smirked.

"I mean I'm not from here as in this, uh, planet."

Mari almost fainted. Rachel started to laugh a little bit. "What are you laughing about? You're from another dimension!"

"When did you get so mean? What happened to you being all sweet and innocent?" Rachel said looking at Kori.

"I moved to Gotham." Everyone laughed except the teens again.

"What do you mean you're not from this planet/dimension?!" Mari and Joey both yelled.

"Oh my gosh." Mari face-palmed. "Let me go off on a limb here." She pointed at Rachel and Gar, "Raven and Beast Boy," --she pointed at Victor and Karen-- "Cyborg and, uh, Bumble Bee?" Karen nodded and smiled. Mari looked over at her parents. "Robin and Starfire." They both nodded. Mari then started to laugh. No one really got what was so funny. After a little bit of laughing, she suddenly stopped and her eyes got big.

"Well, I would say that it finally sunk in," Gar said, sitting on the couch.

"If you're, well, _him_, then that makes Grandpa…" This caused her to stop dead in her tracks. "Oh my God."

"What does that make your grandpa?" Elle said while walking down the stairs. "By the way, I could hear you guys all the way upstairs. You're lucky Lilly didn't wake up."

"I'll explain after my anxiety attack," Mari said as she almost sat down on thin air. She would have fallen if Rachel hadn't moved the ottoman that she was sitting on earlier. "thanks," she mumbled. Elle looked completely scared.

"I think we should start trying to figure out what kids have what powers, if any," Richard suggested.

"Good idea. Um, Joey, have you felt power course through you when you felt an extreme amount of an emotion?" For the first time in a while, Joey blushed; Mari, still in a state of shock, wasn't paying attention. "Uh, kind of, yeah. I was really embarrasses in Chemistry and a few beakers exploded a few seconds later." Rachel sighed.

"That was what I was worried about. What about last week? You know, the day the streetlight exploded?" Joey nodded, trying to hide the blush that had started to grow on his face. "Well, you take after me. That is what I was scared of." She mumbled the last part so no one could hear her.

"Um, why were you scared of that, Mom?" Elle looked confused. So did Rachel.

"Uh, Honey, did you hear your mother say that?" Gar asked. Elle nodded. "How's your sense of smell?"

After he said that, Elle looked over at Mari and hit her with a pillow. That knocked Mari back to this world.

"What did you do that for?" She grabbed the pillow that Elle threw at her and threw it back at her. It knocked Elle off of her seat.

"You told them?! Why?" Elle shouted as she got up.

"I didn't tell them anything. I've been in a state of shock since you went upstairs," Mari shouted back. The two started to yell at each other until they were both suddenly wrapped in black. Everyone looked at Rachel, but she wasn't the one doing it. They all then looked at Joey. His eyes were completely white. Almost as soon as it happened, it stopped and his eyes were their normal amethyst color.

"So, Elle, how well is your sense of smell?" Gar asked, trying to break the silence.

"Well, I can tell that Dad forgot to take out the trash." Gar's eyes grew wide. Rachel gave him a death glair. "And I can tell that Mom is going to kill Dad if he doesn't take it out soon." Gar quickly got up and ran to the kitchen, grabbed the trash, and ran to take it outside.

"Well, later we'll figure out if you can turn into animals, but it's starting to get late." Rachel said before getting up. Mari went to say goodbye to the others and vice versa. While they were doing that, the parents started to whisper.

"Okay, see you all tomorrow. Come on, Mari. Night." The Graysons and the Stones and walked out and to their own houses.

After having a hard night's sleep, Mari was woken up before dawn. "Come on, we need to go. Grab Titan," Her dad said scaring the lack of daylights out of Mari.

Mari had a hard time getting dressed since it was so early. She went to grab Titan, and then went to the car, dozing off in the backseat. They drove for what felt like hours to Mari, bit was only ten minutes. All of a sudden, the car stopped, causing her to wake up and accidentally kicked Titan, who was asleep on the floor of the car.

"We're here," her dad announced while getting out of the car. The Logans and the Stones both pulled up and got out of their cars, also with very sleepy kids in tow.

Elle was asleep on her brother's shoulder when e moved his arm. She was jolted up, stretched, and looked at what the parents were looking toward. "No freakin' way."

Well there is chapter 9. Also, see that little purple button on the bottom of the screen? Push it and tell me what you think of my story. I promise it won't bite you. See you next chapter


	11. Suprise Guests

So, before I begin, I want to give serous props to Somewhere In Time and XxNightfirexX, they have reviewed almost every chapter. I love you all!

Also, I had a guess editor, Authoress Anna, my usual editor Toph's older sister. I think she did a good job. Well, I shall stop rambling now, enjoy the chapter!

_Recap: Elle was asleep on her brother's shoulder when e moved his arm. She was jolted up, stretched, and looked at what the parents were looking toward. "No freakin' way."_

Chapter 10

Elle's yell woke up the others. They wanted to see what all the shouting was about. When they looked out at the bay with the sun rise, they saw one of the coolest places ever: Titans Tower.

"Wow. I never thought that I would be standing in front of this place," Mari said in awe. Her eyes started to hurt from looking at the sun without her sunglasses on.

"Do you want to go in it?" Vic asked, looking at the kids. All of them nodded, lost for words.

"Let me just get this dang keypad to come up and work. So the hidden road comes up." Vic said, struggling with something on his arm. It took a while for the kids to notice that his arm wasn't a normal looking arm, but a robotic arm. Kevin about fell over when he saw this.

Mari leaned over and whispered, "His name is Cyborg, what did you expect?" Vic kept trying until Rachel enclosed all of them in black magic. The next thing they knew, they were in a run-down place. Kori looked like she was going to be sick.

"Mom, are you okay? You don't look so good," Mari said. Mari and the others were very worried about her.

"I saw this before. I felt sick then, and I feel sick now." She looked around and smiled. "But this time is different. Then, we were all apart, and it was very scary and cold, but now we're all together."

Mari turned around to her mom and gave her a big hug. Titan started running around the big room. "'Kay guys, maybe we should start fixing this place up a little bit so none of us get electrocuted. Let's get to work!" Mari walked in, grabbed a broom, and started cleaning. She turned around and saw that the adults staring at her. "What?"

"If we add spikes to her hair, who would she remind us of?" Rachel said before starting to use her powers to pick up some of the bigger things. Kori helped Rachel out while Richard went to help Mari. Victor walked over to the computers and started working on them, while Karen flew up to clean up cobwebs from the ceiling.

All of the other teens decided to pitch in and help where needed. Joey went to help his mom and Kori, Kevin went to help his dad, and Elle grabbed a dust pan and helped sweep up. Even Titan had a job watching over Lilly.

By the end of the night, the main room, a few bedrooms, and a few bathrooms were cleaning up and almost functional. They decided that they would get the best food ever: pizza. Of course, they had to eat by candlelight because Vic hadn't gotten the electricity up yet.

Mari, Elle, Kevin, and Joey were sitting in a circle on the floor. Elle had a box of vegetarian pizza, Kevin had a box of meat-lovers' in front of him, and Joey and Mari were sharing a pepperoni pizza, and Lilly was sitting next to a candle, coloring and eating a cheese pizza. Titan was lying next to her, sleeping. All of the parents except Vic were sitting at the big table, eating pizza and talking about old times. They started to laugh even harder when Elle started chasing Kevin around the room since he had Elle's pizza box and was trying to throw it away.

"Do Vic and I really look like that?" Gar asked taking a bite of pizza. Everyone answered yes and went back to their conversations.

Vic walked over wiping his hands and said in a loud voice, " And then I said 'Let there be light!'" He clapped his hands and all of the electricity came on. Lights lit up and computers came to life. The doors went a little crazy, though. "Well, I'll work on the doors tomorrow. I think we should all follow the example of those two." he nodded toward where Lilly and Titan were asleep. The others agreed with a yawn.

Elle and Mari walked and talked all the way to Gar's old room, which they were sharing for the night, Joey and Kevin went to another open room that they had gotten clean, Rich and Kori walked to Kori's old room, Gar picked up Lilly and went with his wife to her old room, and Vic and Karen went to another room.

While everyone else was sleeping, the girls were talking. "Can I tell you another secret?" Elle asked, looking down from the top bunk she was laying in. Mari, meanwhile, was trying to clean the bed she was laying on.

"What, do you have like, a third foot, or something?"

"No." She pulled her hair so it was in a ponytail. Mari saw Elle's ears for the first time. They were long and pointed, like elf ears. And on her left ear, the cartilage was pierced. "I did actually pierce it on my own. I thought that it would be cool." Mari's jaw dropped. "You can't tell anyone. I have enough problems fitting in as it is."

"I won't," Mari said with a yawn. "I think we should get some sleep, though. I heard my dad saying something about testing our powers. And I know that that can get very tiring. Night."

"Night." They both fell asleep, or at least until Elle started to snore. Mari threw a pillow over Elle's face, and the snoring quickly died down.

The next day, Mari had to wake up Elle and get her dressed. Like Mai said, there was training that morning. Mari knew what this meant fro her: her dad telling her what she was doing wrong. She ran around, waking everyone up and telling them what they were going to do today. When she was done, she changed into her favorite workout outfit: a pair of blue sweats, a light purple tank top, and her favorite pair of white training shoes. Elle was still trying to wake up and get moving when Mari was done dressing. Mari ended up pushing her out of bed forcing her to get dressed. She also warned her that if she wanted breakfast, she was going to need to eat now, because Kevin was cooking. That caused her to run.

After a very long breakfast, Richard, Kori, Gar, Rachel, and Karen went with Mari, Elle, Joey, and Kevin to the training room. Victor had to work on the electrics.

When they got in, it was the exact same as before except for some dust and cobwebs. Each parent took a child except Kori and Richard. They each went over to a part of the gym and started testing their child's power.

"Joey," Rachel started, "I want you to imagine that weight moving, then say Azarath Metrion Zinthos." He did just that. As soon as he said that, his eyes turned white and the weight was surrounded in the black magic. He then lifted his hand up slowly and the weight lifted with it. His eyes soon turned back to normal and the weight dropped to the floor. "Well, I think that, for a first time, that was pretty good." She smiled at her son. They looked at Elle who was standing next to her father.

"Okay, let's see what you can do. I want to show you then, Ill tell you how to do it. 'Kay?" Elle nodded. Gar turned into a mouse, a cat, and a dog in turn. "Okay, just think of the size and then the animal." Elle closed her eyes, and tried to think small and a mouse. It took a little bit, but she finally turned into a mouse. She then turned into a little kitten, then a little puppy. The only thing that was weird was that all of the animals were purple. And something that only Mari noticed, Elle's personal ear piercing was still in. She turned back human and went crazy about how she could turn into animals. Everyone else laughed. She was just like Gar. Then it was Kevin's turn. Karen stopped and thought about something before leaving. She soon returned a few minutes later with a box.

"I have wanted to show this to you and your brother for years." She unlocked the box.

Mari leaned over to Elle and whispered, "He has a brother?" Mari still didn't know everything about her new friends, but she would have really liked to know if they had siblings. Of course, they didn't know about Ryan.

"Yeah. He's a freshman at a college near here, but far enough that he lives at the college," Elle whispered back. Then they heard click. They looked over at Kevin and Karen. Karen was holding two things that looked like a B.

"These are my old stingers." She held one in each hand. "There's a button on the stingers that sends bolts of electricity through it. Also, I had mechanical wings that were built in my suit's shirt that works like real wing. I can also shrink in size. I'll explain that later." She handed Kevin the stingers. "Now aim for the target right there." She pointed at a target on the other end of the room. He pointed, aimed, and electricity shot through the stingers and hit the target. "That's my boy!" She yelled, doing a happy dance. "If you want, I can get you some wings." He nodded and smiled.

"Mari, what do you think you can do? This is really cool all of us having powers and all!" Elle just rambled on and on. Mari just looked over at her parents and said a silent prayer.

"Okay, what do I have to do to get my powers working?" Mari asked looking at her mom. If she had looked at her dad, she would have seen the very stern face he was wearing.

"Well, my powers are powered by emotions. To fly, you must feel the joy of flight. To use star bolts, you need to feel righteous fury. And to use super strength, you need boundless confidence."

"Okay, I have a few problems with that. One: I hate flying, and it scares me to no end. Two: how can fury be righteous? But I can do that strength thing. Watch." She walked over to some of the weights. "Can you guys help me load up some of the bigger weights?" They helped put the weights on the bar. As soon as all of the big weights were on, Mari thought about how she could pick this up without using anything but her own hands. She then picked it up and held it over her head. She put it down, turned around, and looked at her friends with a smirk. "So, what do you think about that?" She looked around. Her dad smiled a little.

"I think that we should take a break. I mean, for the kids, they're not used to training with you." Gar said, trying not to look at Richard.

"Fine, you guys can take a break." Richard agreed looking at gar the entire time. The then adults all went to d different thing.

"So, honestly, do you guys have any ideas names?" Elle asked looking around at the others. Mari had gotten up to go to another area of the gym, where the punching bag was hanging.

"I don't know, I was thinking Shadow. Sound cool, and dark. I like it," Joey answered, putting his hands behind his head.

"I'm thinking of Buzz. I mean, it could work, since I have my mom's powers and her name is Bumble Bee, so, Buzz is like a dude version of that." Kevin said.

"I already know what I'm choosing." She looked around and saw that everyone, including Mari who was half way through stretching her arms was looking at her. "Animal. But for short, Annie."

"I don't know about me. See, I want something that represents me, but also my parents. One idea is that I can be the first female Robin." Mari answered before she started using a series of punches and kicks to hit the punching bag. "Man, it'll be so cool fighting crime and beating bad guys to a pulp." Mari sat after taking a break from the punching bag. Right as Mari was saying this, her father walked in.

"Mari, I never said I would let you be a super-hero," he said. Mari stopped dead in her tracks. "I will not let you fight villains."

"WHAT?! So you were just going to sit here, dangle all of this in front of me, and then just snatch it away from me? That isn't fair! Why won't you let me?" By this time the rest of the adult came in, including Vic. Mari saw the look on his face and knew that it meant that he didn't want to talk about it in front of other people. "Do you want talk about this out there, or do you want me to start yelling here in front of your friends? That way, you can explain to not just me but everyone else why I can't help." Mari rolled her eyes and walked out of the room. He father, following her, growled. Kori knew this was going to be bad, so she had to be there to make sure that nothing really bad happened. No more then a few seconds after they walked out the door did Joey, Elle, Kevin, Gar, and Vic put their ears up to it trying to hear what they were saying. All they could so far hear was Mari's end of the conversation.

"I'm not him! I won't get hurt! No, I can't promise that I won't get badly hurt, but that didn't stop me from learning to ride a bike or going to school. Why won't you let me do this?!"

Then they all could hear Richard, even Rachel and Karen could hear him. "Because I said so, that's why!" he shouted. Mari let out a scream and they could hear her walk away from the area. Then they heard a slam.

"Can sliding doors slam?" Elle asked, looking at the adults. Joey pushed Elle away from him and hit her on the back of the head.

"Not now you idiot. Mom, we can be super-heroes, right? 'Cause we really want to." Kevin and Elle nodded in agreement. Rachel looked at Gar, Karen, and Vic.

"Let's talk about it tomorrow. Okay, we should all get some sleep." Rachel said. Everyone nodded and went to bed. But as Joey was walking out, his mom stopped him. "Wait, there's something I want to ask you. My powers also include empathy, which mean-"

"I can tell what other people are feeling. Yeah, I know," Joey finished for his mom.

"Can you feel others emotions too?"

"Well, kind of. I can tell that there is a lot of anger coming from the roof and the hallways. I can also tell that someone is really sad." Joey looked at his mom and could tell that she felt it too.

"I just wanted to know. Good night, honey." Rachel walked out and instead of walking to her room, she went to the kitchen. As she went to put the tea bag in her mug, someone knocked at the door. She reached the door, opened it, and was not happy at who was at the door. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Joey also didn't go back to his room; instead, he went to the roof to see who was up there.

"If you're here to yell at me some more, Dad, I feel bad enough."

Um, I don't think I'm your dad," Joey said, startling Mari. She turned around from where she was sitting and her could hear and see her crying.

"Ugh, I just want to be a hero. Why won't he let me be a hero?" she demanded.

A hero is someone that another person looks up to, like Lilly looks up to Elle," he answered.

"Like how Ryan used to look at me," Mari mumbled. Joey sat down next to Mari.

"Who's Ryan? I don't think you have ever mentioned him to us before."

"He's my little brother. He didn't come with us when we moved. My parents thought that it would be better for him to stay there with my uncle and grandfather, but, my dad is an idiot with his ideas." The two of them just sat there and shifted around. "Um, Joey?"

"Huh, oh, what?" Joey was staring at the ocean and at how beautiful she was looking.

Um, do you remember the other night, when I… um…uh…" Mari felt so weird trying to bring this up.

"Oh, uh, yeah?" Joey felt exactly the same as she was.

"I'm sorry; I know that you have a girlfriend and all. You were just acting like my boyfriend and… I'm sorry." She looked really sad. "Just, don't tell my old friends that I apologized to someone other then them. They wouldn't let me live it down." That is what caused Joey to laugh.

"Come on, Mari, it's getting late and we should be getting some sleep." They both got up and started walking toward the door.

But before either of them got the door, it opened. And out stepped a female figure. "Now where do you think _you're_ going?"


	12. The Phone Call

Well, I went to zero hour at my school, (at 7:30 am. School doesn't start till 8:30.) And as we were singing, I about got sick. Turns out I have a slight case of food poisoning. Good news for you all because you now get the newest chapter of my lovely story. Also, Joey's super-hero name, Shadow, belongs to XxNightfirexX, I just forgot to mention that in my last chapter.

Chapter 11

"Where do you think you're going?" The voice said, looking at Joey. As the figure walked into the light, you could tell that it was a girl. She looked very beautiful with blond hair and blue eyes. "Don't make me repeat my question. Where do you think you're going without giving your girlfriend a kiss?" She ran toward him and gave him a hug.

"What are you doing here, Claire? I thought that you said you moved to another country." By the looks of it, someone would think that they wouldn't let go of each other anytime soon.

"We did, but my mom said we need to see the Titans about something. We just got here. What are you doing at Titan's Tower?"

"Turns out my parents are Titans, Mari's parents are too." Claire looked very confused. "Wait, you haven't met Mari yet?" He looked around and tried to find Mari, though she was leaning up against the wall, about to leave. "She moved into town after you moved out." After finally seeing Mari right in front of him, he grabbed her and dragged her into the conversation. "Claire, this is Mari Grayson. Mari, this is Claire Markov, my girlfriend."

"It's very nice to meet you, Claire." Mari said holding out her hand.

"Nice to meet you, too. So what area did you move to? A rich girl like you probably moved really close to right here, right?"

"Actually I moved across the street from Joey others."

"Really? Huh, shocker. So you haven't been flirting with my boyfriend, have you?" They were walking down the stairs toward the main room. Joey and Mari's face paled.

"What? No. No, no, no. I have a boyfriend back home at Gotham. Speaking of which, I have to call him tomorrow. He has a big game."

The two girls and Joey kept talking all the way down as they went to the main room to get something to drink so they could talk some more. As they entered the door, all the adults were talking with two people. One was a woman that looked exactly like Claire, just older. The other was a man. He looked a little bit like Claire and the woman, just that his hair had a bit more orange in it. All of the adults' faces were variations of two expressions; Vic, Karen, Kori, and Rich all had a confused look, while Rachel and Gar looked almost angry.

"Hey Mom, I knew you had powers and all and was a super-hero at one time, but you used to live here?! I mean, the best place we lived at was our last house here, and that had just barely enough room fro the three of us!"

Joey looked at his mother and recognized that look on her face. "Um, do you want us to go, Mom?" Rachel just shook her head.

"I want you three to go wake up the others, except for Lilly. She has school tomorrow." Mari and Joey nodded.

"Come on, Claire. I think I may need help trying to wake up Elle," Mari said.

"Actually, I want to go with Joey, if that's alright with him." Joey nodded and they walked away, hand in hand.

Mari entered the room to wake Elle up.

"Hey Elle. Wake up." Mari shook Elle a little.

"No, don't make me dance, you evil monkey-ninjas!" Elle shouted in her sleep before rewrapping herself in her blanket and turning over on her side.

"Don't make me wake you up like I did this morning." Soon, Titan walked sleepily through the door. "Oh Titan, come here boy," Mari said with a big smile on her face. She grabbed her big dog and tried to put on Elle's bunk. "Man, Ti, you've got to lay off the doggie treats," Mari groaned, pushing him up. Titan, after much struggling, was on top of Elle. Soon, he was licking Elle's face.

"Huh, whoa! Get down, Titan! Titan jumped off the bunk, landed, and walked out the door. "What a way to wake up." Elle looked at the alarm clock and whined. "Why did you wake me up this early? It's not like we have school or anything."

"A girl named Claire is here with her mom, and I think her dad. But I don't want to ask." Mari went through her bag, looking for something. "I know I put them in here… ahah." Mari grabbed a sleek pair of sunglasses and put them on. "Come on. Your mom wanted you in there, I think. Are you okay? If you want, I can tell them that you weren't feeling good and you can go back to bed." Elle shook her head.

"I just always feel funny around Claire. I mean, I like her and all, but she tries too hard to get on my good side. I just don't know." Elle looked very serious, and that was what was scaring Mari. "Come on, I'm hungry. Do you think there's any tofu left?"

Mari couldn't help but laugh. They continued to talk and laugh when they entered the room. All of the adults were where they originally were at the table with Claire, Joey, and Kevin sitting on the couch.

"Elle, I haven't seen you in forever. How are you?"

"I'm great! How are you? Where do you live now? Do they have any good malls?" The two girls started laughing.

"So, what did you want us up for?" Mari asked, trying not to make eye contact with her parents.

"I want all of you to meet Terra. You three may already know her though, since you know her daughter." Rachel said with a confused look on her face.

"Actually, I never met Claire's boyfriend. It's nice to finally meet you," Terra said.

"It's nice to meet you too, Ms. Markov." Joey said, shacking Terra's hand

Looking over at Elle, Terra continued, "I think we've met once… Elle, right?"

"Yes. I spent the night at your house once. At least, until I got sick. It's nice to see you again," Elle said with a smile.

"That's Kevin and Mari. Now that we're done with introductions, what are you doing here?" Gar said, sounding aggravated. This scared even Rachel, but only temporarily.

"We nee help. See, we're still super-heroes, my brother and I." She pointed to the man standing next to her. "We were back in Russia, where I'm originally from, and I caught sight of smoke. I went to check to see what it was about. "She grabbed what looked like her old Titan communicator, but it was different. "I saw this and thought you would know what it was about." It began to play a video. Vic grabbed it and hooked it up so it would play on the big TV.

"Whoa," All of the kids mumbled. None of them had yet seen the TV and were all surprised.

The video played. There was a small village on fire. The man, who Terra had revealed as her brother, was levitating dirt onto the fire to try to stop the fire from spreading. Soon, Claire came in the picture, trying to help everyone get out safely. The camera was then turned, and the last thing that was seen was a streak of purple and an evil laugh that caused Kori and the others to gasp.

"So, I think you guys know who this is."

"Yes," Kori said. She turned toward her husband and the others. "Do you think she will come here?"

"I think that may be a safe bet," Vic said, looking ready to fight.

"Thanks for telling us. Anything else?" Gar spat out.

"Yeah. What's up with you tow's attitudes? I'm just trying to be nice and help! Look, I still can't remember all of my past, but I remember at one point we were friends!"

"What o you mean, you don't remember?" Richard asked suspiciously.

"My brother found me a few days after you did." She looked over at Gar. "He, of course, recognized me, but I didn't recognize him. He's been trying to help me remember things. I get little pieces that come to me every once in a while. Look, what did I do that was so bad that made you hate me this much?"

Rachel turned toward the kids. "Go to bed," she said through clenched teeth.

"Wait, you had us get up and now you want us to go back to bed? That's not cool," Elle continued.

"Listen to your mother. Now!" Gar yelled at Elle.

Elle was shocked at that her dad yelled at her. She ended up doing what she was told. She was then followed by Kevin, Joey, Claire, and Mari. As Mari walked out the room, she was trying to think about her stories. Terra, bad, forgetting? It had all sounded so familiar. Then it struck her like a ton of bricks.

"Um, can I grab a glass of water really quickly? I'm kind of thirsty."

"Hurry," her mother replied. She knew what Mari was about to do, but wasn't going to stop her, knowing she would do it any way.

She grabbed the glass of water, mumbled her _good night_'s, and walked out the door. What surprised Mari was that Claire was right there.

"What are you doing? You almost gave me a heart attack," Mari fiercely whispered, not wanting to be heard by the adults.

"I was going to listen to what they were saying. I want to find out what my mom did that was so bad."

"Well, I think they gave me enough time to get out of hearing range." Mari dumped the water in a potted plant right by the door. She then put the glass to the door and listened through it. Claire just pushed her ear to the crack under the door.

"Look, I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry. We really need help."

Gar looked at her. "I'm not helping you. You think that by saying sorry, we're all going to forgive you? Well, I don't know about the others, but I'm not. I gave you my trust! We all did! And you betrayed us all, selling us out. You have to remember that, don't you? You're just pretending not to. You must remember Slade. You know, the guy you betrayed us for! Look, we can handle Blackfire on our own. We don't need you anymore. You had every chance to do the right thing. You chose what you did." Gar knocked over his chair as he got up and headed over to the leave. The two girls behind gasped and tried to run, but Claire's pant leg was stunk between the doors.

To their relief, Gar stopped as Terra spoke again. "Alright, you caught me; I do remember most of it. I thought if I acted like I didn't, you guys would treat me like it never happened. I guess, even if I really did forget, you would still treat me like this." Terra started walking toward Gar. "But she seemed really powerful, and we want to help. Please. . I've changed." Mari was helping Claire get unstuck when they heard Terra talk. They both stopped, went back to the positions they were at earlier, and listened.

"Please, trust me." Terra placed a hand on Gar, making Rachel want to crawl out of her skin.

"I'm married, Terra. To Rachel." He picked up her hand and put it down. "The last time I saw you, you didn't remember any of this, yet now you do. How, why, just tell me." He walked over to his wife and wrapped his arms around her.

"Like I said earlier, my brother Brian found me. When he found out that I didn't remember him, he started trying to help me remember stuff. Like showing me how my powers worked again. And, when I was able to lift boulders and stuff like that again, more memories started to come. After a while, I had completely remembered everything. I wanted to try to find you guys, but I soon found out that you all disbanded. Brian had something to do back in Russia, so he left me here by myself for a while. So I stayed at an apartment uptown. Then I met Claire's father. One thing led to another, he dumped me, I had Claire, and we have been moving around since." Claire almost had a heart attack; she never heard anything about her father. Mari looked down at Claire and mouthed if she was okay. All Claire could do was nod her head.

The rest of the parents just wanted to know about Blackfire. Kori, Rachel, and Gar remained quiet the rest of the conversation for different reasons. Claire and Mari decided that it was late and that they really should get to bed. Mari told Claire that she could sleep with her and Elle for the night, until they cleaned more rooms. They walked in and saw that Elle wasn't in bed, but drawing I what looked like a sketch pad.

Mari crept up behind Elle and whispered, "What'cha doin'?" This caused Elle to jump and sit on the book.

"Nothing!" She turned to Claire and smiled. "So, has Mari given you our open invitation to stay in our room?"

"Yes. But where am I going to sleep?"

"Well, I was thinking," Elle said, hopping from her bunk and reaching for something under the bed. She grabbed a box of pizza. "No, this." a box that had different things in it that could be used for pranks, "Hmmm, I could use this," she mumbled, then she pulled out what looked like an ancient banana peel. It screamed at Elle and tried to bite her. Elle screamed back at it and dropped it. It crawled back under the bed. "That was weird." She turned toward the other two, who had jumped on the top bunk they were so scared of the peel monster. "Hold on, I think I found it." She pulled out an inflatable bed. "I thought that we would need this at some point." The rest of the night, the girls talked until they fell asleep.

The next morning was somewhat like the day before, except they were going to work on the obstacle course. The adults were going to go first. Richard went first, followed by Rachel, then Kori, Gar, Karen, and Vic who all did well. "Which one of you is going next?" Richard asked, looking at Terra and Brian.

"Really? Well, I guess I could go first." Terra said, sounding shocked. She went, doing all of her moves perfectly. She stopped afterwards and just stood there. Some of the adults couldn't help but let a small smile grace their face. While the parents went through the course, the kids were all sitting or stretching their muscles, watching their parents move and blast stuff. Well, all but Mari. She grabbed a book from Joey's bag and was reading it.

"So, Brian, it's your turn," Vic said, turning to the last person. "Do you know what to do?"

"Yes, but thank you for offering." Hearing him talk was a surprise to everyone; they didn't even know he spoke English, but he had a nice accent. He started off and the others got worried. He got off to a somewhat bad start, because his rock was busted by the blasts. He went through the entire course, though, actually doing batter then anyone.

"So, how'd I do for a beginner?" he asked as he came to a stop. Terra looked like she was going to bust with laughter.

"Really well, actually," Karen said, astonished. "Now I think it's the kids' turn. Which one of you wants to go first?" None of the kids raised their hands. Mari was about to when she saw a look on her dad's face. Claire looked around and decided that she could give it a go. Claire got up and stood at the starting line. She went through the course with ease, until she tripped and stumbled at the end.

The rest of the kids went on the beginner level and did pretty well. However, there was a small incident at the end that involved Elle, Kevin, his stingers, and the main computer.

"So, while Vic is trying to fix Kevin and Elle's little mess," Richard said, looking back at a crying Vic, while crying not to laugh, "You guys can do whatever you want." So all of the teens ran away as fast as they could. Mari, on the other hand, went to her mother.

"Hey, Mom? Can you take me back to the house? I have some stuff that I want to bring back here to the tower."

"Sure, but weren't you giving me the silent treatment?" Kori said as she walked her daughter through the tower.

"I was, but then I decided that you were on m side, so it's Dad who has to deal with my 'tude now. Hey, is it cool if I clean up another room and stay there? Elle's room is getting a little cramped with Claire staying here. I've already found a room. I found it while Dad was going through the obstacle course. Please?" She asked giving her mom "the look".

"Fine." They hit the end of the island. It took Kori a minute to remember that the car was parked back on the main land. "Grab my hand, Honey."

"Okay, but…" As she was about to finish her sentence, she noticed that her feet were no longer on ground, but dangling above the bay. "Don't let me go!" She closed her eyes tightly, holding tightly onto her mother for dear life. As soon as the flight was over, Kori released her daughter gently on the ground. "Don't ever do that again without telling me I hate flying." She started lecturing her mom on the way to the car.

At their house, Mari ran down to the basement and grabbed some of the boxes they used for moving. Up in her room, Mari grabbed some new, clean clothes, more sunglasses, pictures, her address book, her laptop, and a guitar shaped case. She also grabbed things like the vacuum cleaner and other cleaning things. As she put a box full of the things in the back seat, she remembered something and ran back into grab her cell phone charger.

Back at the Tower, everyone was in the main room getting something for lunch. It took a while for someone to realize that Mari and Kori were gone. As soon as the rest of the Titans started trying to figure out where the two girls were, Mari and Kori walked through the door. Kori went over to her husband and kissed him on the cheek. Mari, on the other hand, put down the box and went toward the refrigerator.

"Hey, Mare-Bear, where were you guys at?" He got a "Humph" I return. "Did you just humph me, young lady? You did not just humph your father! Kori, did you hear her do that to me?" His wife answered the same as her daughter-- with a humph. Mari started to walk out of the room, soda in one hand, ox of random stuff in another.

"So, Mari what room did you pick?" Kori asked.

"I don't know, I was wandering around and just found the room. I had a really nice view of the ocean." Mari walked out of the door, but walked back in again immediately. "Um, do you guys want to help me set up my room? I may need some help with cleaning it and getting it the way that I want it." The others nodded and went to help. Joey even offered to carry the box for Mari. She was about to decline the offer when Mari's phone went off. Again, she was surprised by the shouting voice of the ring. It took a while for her to find the pocket she had her phone in.

"Hello?… Cam, is it you? … Sweetie, I need you to calm down. I can't understand a word you're saying….Cam… Cam… CAMEILE RODRIGUEZ! CALM DOWN!…Are you cam?… Now, what's wrong?… What?… Why?… Is she okay?… Okay, call me later. Bye." Everything that was in Mari's hands fell to the ground. Her cell phone was ruined, since it fell first and the soda spilled on top of it. "I need to get to Gotham," she said to no one in particular. She looked at her dad and repeated, "I need to get to Gotham. Now." She was starting to cry really hard. "Ivy's in the hospital. Cam said a neighbor called in that they heard a large thud from Ivy's apartment. The police came and found her beaten half to death." By now she was completely crying, and almost unable to stand. "I need to go see her now!"

"I'm sorry, Honey, but you can't even if we did start driving, you wouldn't get there until tomorrow at least," Richard said to his daughter.

"What?! My friend id hurt and I need to be there for her. This doesn't surprise me. If it was one of them," --she pointed toward the other adults who were standing shock of hearing all of this -- "you would have been there before you got the call." She shook her head and walked out. "I hate this." was the last thing they heard from her before she locked herself in her new room.

Later that night, Kori went in to check on her child. Mari always took after her when it came to caring for her friends. "Mari, Sweetheart? Are you okay? Know how you feel, but you need to come out and get something to eat." When Kori didn't hear a reply, she got worried. She opened Mari's door using the new access code. When she got inside, she saw that no one was there. Since Mari never came back for her box, the room was exactly the same, which is how Kori recognized it as Robin's old room. She looked around the room and saw what she was really scared of: a note from Mari. "Richard!"

"Look, Buddy, I just need one ticket to Gotham! I have a debit card, now please! One ticket. Just one." Mari was pleading with a man behind a glass window.

"Sorry Miss, but we don't accept debit. Now, we do except cash, credit, and checks. The next train leaves in ten minutes, so if you want a ticket, then I advise that you do it quick."

Mari let out an aggravated scream. She had snuck out the tower, hacked the code for the underground passage way, and took a bus all the way to the train station. She didn't figure out that she didn't have any cash on her.

"Two tickets to Gotham," a voce behind her said. She didn't have to look around to know who it was. She turned around and buried her face in his shirt.

"Thank you Joey, but what are you doing here?"

"I'll explain on the train. Come on, it's about to leave."


	13. Gotham City, Here We Come!

So, I have needed to post this up a week ago, but I had homecoming, and an evil sister who love the white out tape and my story papers. I hate high school. Well, here it is, in time for Columbus Day! I want to dedicate this to my mom. She doesn't really get Teen Titans, but she helps me get ideas. I love you Momma!

Chapter 12

The entire train ride was quite. Mari never really did ask Joey what he was doing there; all she did was stare out the window and watch the country zoom by.

"Dang it," Joey said out of the blue, causing Mari to look away from the window. "My phone just died. And I left my charger at home." He slumped back in his seat and closed his eyes. "Why did you have to leave so late?" he said with a yawn.

"Go ahead and take a nap. I'll wake you up when we get there." As she finished her sentence, she looked over at Joey and saw his asleep already. She turned back to her window, smiling for the first time in a while.

The rest of the train ride went by fast for Joey, who spent the entire time asleep. For Mari though, they couldn't get to Gotham fast enough. As they got off the train, a hard rain poured down.

"Let's get a cab; the hospital is on the other side of town," Mari said, walking to an ATM that had a pay phone next to it. As Mari got some from the ATM, Joey dug around his pocket fro change to use the pay phone. With a triumphant smile, he pulled out two quarters and put them in the phone. Mari stood under the over hang of the roof, waiting for Joey to finish. As he got off the phone, the two of them walked to the front of the building to wait for the cab. Mari was being unusually quiet. When the cab pulled up, Mari and Joey got in and told the cab driver to go to Gotham Memorial Hospital. The man began to drive and tried to start small talk with them, until he saw the look on their faces. It was only 7:30 at night, but with the bad weather, it looked like it was much, much later. On the ride to the hospital, traffic stopped when four motorcycles zoomed by, followed by another two motorcycles and a long black car.

"Looks like you two came on an interesting night. That was Batman, the new Robin, and the new batgirl. You'll get used to this, though," The taxi driver said with a Jersey accent. The traffic started back up again.

When they got to the hospital, Mari paid the man and ran inside the hospital. She reached the front desk, where a young nurse reading a magazine and chewing bubble gum was sitting.

"Excuse me. Where is Ivy Crawford?" The nurse didn't even look up at Mari, let alone answer. "Miss, I really need to know Ivy Crawford's room. Could you tell me where she is?" This time Mari asked a little louder. She was getting very mad. "Look, lady! My friend is hurt and I need to see her! All you have do to is tell me where she is and I will leave you alone! Now please, tell me where she is!" As she was shouting, she reached over the counter and grabbed her by the collar. When she started shaking her a little, a set of ear-set came out. A doctor came over before the nurse had a chance to call security and tapped Mari on the shoulder.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Scholls. I couldn't help but hear you asking for Ivy Crawford. I'm her doctor. I could take you up to her room." Mari nodded and followed Dr. Scholls to the elevator with Joey following. Mari liked this doctor a lot better than the taxi driver, since he wasn't, trying to make Mari talk.

Finally, when they reached Ivy's floor, they saw that only one person was sitting in the waiting area. She had very tanned, Hispanic-looking skin and black hair. She was biting her gray colored nails before looking over at the elevator that Mari and the others walked out of. She looked upset with Mari, until the girl gave her a big hug.

"Normally, I would try to give you a little crap about leaving and coming back and being a wuss, but I don't think I can. She looks so small with all of the wires attached to her. She'll be happy to see you," the girl said, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"Okay." As Mari walked toward the door she remembered something. "Wait, Joey, this is my friend Cam. Cam, this is my new friend Joey. "She said, introducing the two. "Let's go." Joey decided that he probably should stay outside and try to get a hold of his parents.

Mari and cam sat by a hospital bed that had a girl with red hair. She looked like she was normally beautiful, but she had bruises and cuts all over her face and arms. No one was saying anything. Cam was messing with her hair absent-mindedly, staring at their friend Ivy.

"So, how is everybody?" Mari asked, never taking her eyes off of Ivy.

"Well, Pete is doing fine. They have a big playoff game tomorrow," --she seemed to also be speaking to Ivy-- "but we haven't seen much of X or Bales. After you left, X went and sat at another table immediately, while Balie moved after a week or two. We've all missed you, especially Ivy and me." This made Mari look up at Cam. When she had moved away, she was worried that her friends would not miss her.

"I've really missed you guys too. They both smiled, until they heard a groan and movement from the bed.

"I feel like I got trampled by a stampede of wild mustangs," Ivy moaned, trying to sit up. She blinked a few times. "Where am I?"

"You're I the hospital, Ive," Mari said, surprising Ivy.

"You're really here! Wait, why are you here? And what the heck am I doin' in a hospital? I'm not sick!"

"Ivy," Cam started, "The police found you at home, half-beaten to death. I need you to tell us what happened."

"I, uh, fell down the stairs," Ivy said, finding the blankets very interesting. Mari was about to say something when Cam interrupted.

"Bull! Ivy, I don't want to hear that you fell down the stairs, ran into a door, or any of the other lode of horse crap you've been tying to feed us. Tell me the truth, Ivy! Has your dad been doing this to you?" Cam was in a fit of rage. You could also tell that her nails were no longer gray, but fiery red.

Ivy hesitated, still fidgeting with the blanket. A soft "yes" was heard. Cam and Mari both looked furious. Cam was about to say something when Joey interrupted.

"Sorry to interrupt, but there is a big scary man nurse that keeps staring at me. Can I sit in here with you guys?" Joey said after popping his head into the door. Ivy leaned toward Mari.

"You brought a boy!" She whispered fiercely "You have a boyfriend." Cam was leaning back in her chair, still mad and trying to think of ways to get rid of Ivy's dad with leaving evidence.

"I know, he's just a friend. And besides, if he hadn't come, I would not be here." She whispered back to Ivy. "You can come in Joey." Joey breathed a sigh of relief as he walked in. "Joey, I want you to meet my other, very close friend, Ivy Crawford." Ivy cringed at the saying of her name. "Ivy, this is my new friend Joey. He, uh, kind of, uh, helped me pay for my ticket." Mari said mumbling the last part. Cam looked over, along with Ivy, at Mari and started to laugh.

"Wait, Heiress needed help with buying something? You have lost your touch out there in Jump City. Have you also gone peaceful? 'Cause if so, I will take this opportunity to finally get a punch in on you. No offence though." Cam said smirking. When they were kids, Rich taught both kids some self defense stuff, but Mari learned faster.

"No. Actually I got suspended from school." Ivy and Cam's jaws dropped.

"You have never gotten suspended before. What did you do?"

"She got into a fight with the vice-principal's daughter. Though, the girl does deserve to get her butt kicked." Joey said, rubbing the back of his head. Mari smiled, and started to laugh a little." So," Joey started, "you are the famous friends the others and I hear a lot about. I honestly thought you'd be shorter like Mari." Cam and Ivy both started laughing from that.

"No, she's the shortest of all of our friends. We tell people that she didn't eat a lot of vegetables when we were little, so she ended up short." Cam said, trying to stop laughing. "Though, I heard a rumor that her dad was a short as this when he was her age. But, the way he looks, that looks like that never happened."

The four of them sat around and talked about different things. Joey tried to say that his football team was way better than theirs; he got a pillow to the face and got pushed out of his chair. They were laughing at this when Dr. Scholls came in.

"Hello Ivy, I hope your feeling better." Ivy nodded. "Good. But I'm sorry to say that visiting hours are over today and your friends have to leave. But they can come back tomorrow if they want." Cam, Mari, and Joey all got up. Cam leaned over and hugged Ivy, then Mari did the same.

"'Kay, we'll be back tomorrow as early as we can." When they walked out, Cam got aggravated again.

"I swear, the second I see that man, he's going to see what a P.O.ed Mexican can do! Ugh! I say we to his place and jump him." Mari shocked her head.

"That's a bad idea. Maybe we should go home," Mari said as they walked to the elevator.

"So, where are you guys going to stay? I mean, my mom won't mind you, but, Mari, but she might have a problem with him." Cam nodded toward Joey. They walked out under a tarp someone had set up earlier; it was still raining just as hard.

"That's fine; I know a place we can stay," Mari said. She went out into the rain and hailed a cab for the three of them to share. They dropped Cam off at her house and headed out of town.

"Why are we leaving town? I thought you said that you used to live here," Joey said. He was starting to sound a little worried that he was going to get kidnapped.

"Stop worrying, you big baby," Mari said, smiling a little while looking through her string bag for something.

They pulled up to a huge gate that had a key pad on it.

"I'm sorry Miss, but this is as far as I can take you," The taxi driver said with an Indian accent.

"That's fine. Here, keep the change." Mari handed him the money and started toward the gate. The rain was now coming down harder, if possible. "Are you ready to run?" She said as she typed in a code for the gates to open. The second it opened up, Mari and Joey made a mad dash for the front door, which was about twenty feet away. They ended up racing each other, though Mari still beat him. She rang the door bell, hoping she didn't wake Alfred up. As she started trying to wring out her hair, a boy that she didn't recognize answered. He had black hair, was about as tall as Joey, and had brown eyes.

"I'm sorry, but we already donated to the needy today. Sorry." the boy said, and almost shut the door on them when an older man came to the door. She pushed her way in. Joey followed her in, out of breath.

"Where is he, Alfred?" Mari asked, looking at the old man. Alfred knew exactly who she was talking about.

"He is upstairs in his study," He turned to Joey. "Who are you?" he said. Joey was starting to get a little mad that people kept asking that or looking like they were going to ask that.

"This is Joey. Please give him something warm to eat," she called as she ran up the stairs.

"Wait a sec," the mystery kid called before chasing her. Mari reached a door and opened it without knocking. Sitting behind a big oak desk was a somewhat large man with white hair and blue eyes. He was writing on some papers. He looked up and saw that Mari was standing in front of him.

"Mari? To what do I owe this surprise? Your dad didn't tell me you guys were coming for a visit." Soon someone walked down a flight of stairs behind the desk. He was tall and thin, but other than that, he looked just like Mari's dad Richard.

"Hey, Tim-Tim." She said to the newcomer. She turned back to the first man. "No, Dad didn't tell you because he doesn't know I'm here." She could see the disappointment run across both of their faces. "Before you two start with the whole 'running away is wrong' stuff, Ivy is in the hospital."

"I know," Tim said, looking down. He finished walking down the stairs so he was behind the desk also.

"You knew! And you weren't going to tell me!" Mari's eyes started glowing a little by this. Tim and Bruce were both shocked.

"Mari, calm down. Tim did call, but he got a busy signal each time," Bruce said, trying to calm Mari down. Both Tim and Bruce remembered how Kori got when she was really mad, and Mari seemed to be the same way. Mari's eyes stopped glowing and she staggered a little. She was about to say something else when the door burst open, showing the guy from before.

"Bruce, there's a homeless chick running around your house." He was going to continue when he saw Mari standing right in front of him. "Look, you should get out of here before we call the police." He looked like he was ready to fight. Mari, Tim, and Bruce all raised an eyebrow.

"Um," Tim said, trying not to laugh, "Mari, this is Scott. He's staying at my apartment with Ryan and me. Scott, this is Mari Grayson." The second Tim said her last name, Scott's eyes grew to the size of platters.

Mari sighed. "Look, I'm going to bed. I have another person that came with me. My friend Joey. I'm going to be in my old bedroom, Joey can stay in another. Night Tim, night Grandpa, Scott." She walked toward the door, shoes squeaking from the rain. She was about to walk out when she turned around and said "Oh, by the way, I know everything." She left with just that.

As she walked out, Bruce got n the phone. "You two go ahead and head home. Tim, don't tell Ryan that Mari's here. She going to be home soon and it will just get his hopes up." Tim and Scott walked out, Scott still shocked he called a Grayson a homeless person. As they walked out, Bruce made his phone call….

BACK IN JUMP CITY--

The Logans and The Graysons were sitting at the table in the main room of the Tower, or, in Richard's case, pacing back and forth.

"How could they do that? Rachel, have you gotten a hold of them?" He asked. Rachel put down the phone and shook her head. All of a sudden, the phone rang. Everyone made a grab for the phone. Kori got to it first an answered.

"Hello?… Oh, hello Bruce… Um, sure, hold on." She put her hand over the speaker. "He wants me to put him on speaker phone." Everyone gave questionable looks. Kori did just like he asked and put him on speaker. "Hello, Bruce?

"Hello, Kori. Hello, Dick." Richard shook his head as Gar started laughing at his nickname. "Are the Logans there too?"

"Yes, Bruce. Our friends Rachel and Gar are here. Why are you calling?" Richard answered.

"Mari and her friend Joey are here." All of the parents let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay, keep them there until we come and get them tomorrow," Richard replied, looking at the phone.

"That won't be necessary, Dick. I will send them out with Tim. But Mari had a good reason to come out here. Ivy's father was beating her. And even if Cam didn't call her, Tim was about to call her and tell her. I think she did a very good thing for her friend. Look, it's late, they're safe here. I will call you tomorrow. Good night, all."

"Good night, Bruce," Kori said turning off the phone and looking over at Richard. "At least they're safe," she said. Richard just shook his head and left the room.

BACK ING GOTHAM--

Mari and Joey had a good night's sleep. As soon as they woke up, they smelled Alfred making breakfast.

"Good morning, Miss Mari, Mr. Joseph." Mari started to laugh at his name.

"Hehe. Joseph." Joey's cheeks started to turn red.

"It's Joey, Alfred. So, what's for breakfast?" Mari asked.

"Well, actually, I made Miss Mari's favorite, chocolate chip pancakes and sausage links. Mr. Joey," he said, emphasizing his name, "what would you like to drink?"

"Herbal tea, please. If you have any." Alfred nodded, getting there drinks.

They both ate breakfast in the kitchen with Alfred.

"Um, Joey, you can stay here today if you want. I'm going to visit my old high school, I want to surprise my friends," Mari said. Joey just nodded and went to help Alfred with the dishes.

Mari changed into some old clothes she left in her old room, since the only clothes she brought were soaked from the rain and left with a skateboard in hand. She sped through the streets, trying to make it to the school before the Varsity team kicked off.

When she got to the school, she knew she made it just in time, so she started looking for two different numbers: number twenty two, Peter's number, and eighty one, X's number. She looked around a little and found number twenty two. She snuck up and grabbed his sides, causing him to scream like a girl.

"You still have that stupid girly scream, Peter!" Mari said, laughing her butt off.

"Mari! What are you doing here?" He asked, hugging his friend. Peter was much taller than Mari, since he was a year older than her and the rest of her friends. He had dirty blond hair and hazel eyes. He was like a big brother to Mari, Cam, and Ivy.

"I had some things to take care of. Hey, good luck today. Have you seen X, though? I really want to say good luck to him too."

"No, I haven't. He should be around here somewhere. Hey, want to meet for pizza after the game? Just like old times," Peter asked, walking Mari up to the bleachers.

"No thanks, I--" Mari began before stopping dead in her tracks. They were standing directly under the bleachers and in front of them were two teens making out. But that wasn't what made Mari stop. It was that the boy had on a Gotham Central High School football jersey with the number eighty one on it, X's number. She went over and tapped him on his shoulder. He turned around and got a huge slap across his face.

"What do you think you're doing?" Mari demanded. She looked over at the girl who was trying to sneak away from the scene. Her back was to Mari, but she knew who it was by the hair scrunchy she had her hair in. Mari had given to her for a tenth birthday gift. "Where do you think your going, Bales?" She spat out her name like it was poison. Balie stopped right were she was and turned around slowly.

"Mari, this--" X started.

"Don't you dare tell me it's not what it looks like, Charlie!" She took a ring off of her finger and threw it into the dirt. She then stepped on it and squished it into the ground. "I don't want to talk to either of you ever again." She was choking back tears. She started to walk away when X called back.

"I never really liked you; you're a sad pathetic loser. I only dated you to get to Balie here," he jeered. That is what through her over the top. She turned around and almost tried to kill him had it not been for Peter grabbing her by the waist and pulling her back.

"You know what, I'm gone. Sorry, Pete. Bye." She went off down the street on her skateboard. Peter knew she was upset. So was he. And he knew one way that would make him feel at least somewhat better. He grinned as he joined his team as they ran onto the field.

Mari rode her skateboard all the way to the hospital. There, she went up to Ivy's room and entered. Ivy and Cam were playing cards and listening to the radio. Mari knew that they were listening to the school's radio station, which would broadcast the varsity game really soon. "Guys, if X was seeing someone behind my back, would you tell me?" Mari asked, almost crying.

They both looked at each other and then to Mari. "Yes, right after I knocked them both out. Why, what happened?" Cam asked, laying down her hand of cards down on a little tray they were playing on. Ivy took this opportunity to see what she was playing against and let out a sigh; apparently she lost.

"I saw X with another girl under the bleachers. He was with Balie," Mari said. Cam gasped and grew angry.

"Maybe it's not how it looked," Ivy suggested. Both girls looked at Ivy.

"Sweetie, at your old school, do you remember what the students did under the bleachers?" Cam asked, barely understanding what Ivy just said.

"Yes, they… Oh." Ivy's eyes grew big and her jaw dropped. "I'm sorry," she said, looking at Mari, who was now crying a little.

"That's it, I'm going to kick his and her butt to Brazil and back again!" Cam yelled. Mari was shocked; Cam never mentioned Brazil, since that was where her dad was from and ran away to when he left her and her mother.

"Thanks, but no thanks. Right now, I just wasn't to sit here and listen to how my good friend is doing in football with my two closest friends in the entire world," Mari said. She reached over and turned the radio up.

"The Gotham Central Knights have the ball and are about to hick the ball, they're in formation. There's the HICK! It looks like number eighty one is going to run the ball in hopes of a first down. Oh no, it looks like the Pirates' defense may get to him. What?! Number twenty two just let the Pirates' linebacker get past him. Ouch. That one is going t hurt number eighty one big time. Looks like the coach is pulling out twenty two. Let see if our field correspondent can get a word with the player." The three girls looked at each other in disbelief. A football scholarship was the only way Pete could go to college, and he would never do anything like that to screw up his chances for the scholarship.

"Peter, why did you let that defensive linebacker past?"

"Well, I did it by accident. When I joined the team, I made a promise to keep people from hurting my teammates, or as I like to think my friends, and when I make a promise I tend to keep it," Pete said. Mari smiled; she knew who he was talking to and what about.

"Thanks, Peter. We'll be right back after these commercials." Cam turned off the radio and looked at the others. Out of no where, Mari burst into laughter. Soon, she was followed by Ivy, then Cam. They went on for a little bit. Mari looked at Cam and noticed something.

"Hey, Cam, I was wondering something. What is up with your nails? They change colors constantly," Mari said. Ivy nodded in agreement with her.

"Oh, um, uh, new nail polish?" Cam tried. Mari and Ivy looked like they didn't believe her. Cam muttered something in Spanish under her breath.

"Okay, um, don't laugh but I can change the way I look. And my nails change colors to my mood. Like, when I'm angry or mad, they turn red," Cam explained. Mari looked shocked.

"You too?" Ivy said. Mari and Cam looked at their friend in the bed. "I mean, not the same powers as you, but I do have powers. See?" She turned to a vase of dead flowers Mari just now noticed. Ivy waved her hand over it dust came out of her palm and sprinkled over the flowers. The flowers soon came back to life with vibrant colors. "I can also make people fall asleep." Mari was about to say something when two women walked in. One had beautiful, wavy light brown hair and blue eyes. The other looked like Cam, but with almost black eyes.

"Hello, Ivy. How are you feeling?" The brown-haired lady asked.

"I've been better. Katelynn, these are my friends Cam Rodriguez and Mari Grayson." They both nodded _hello_ to the lady, not leaving Ivy's side. "Guys, this is my social worker, Katelynn Murphy." Katelynn nodded back to the girls.

"Ivy, I think it would be best to see you get out of that home." Katelynn said looking at Ivy.

"No! I can't, he's the only family I have left. If I leave him, where would I go? I don't want to leave my friends. I love it here. Please, don't take me away." Ivy was crying by this point.

"I agree with that. You should stay here. That's why, for right now, Ms. Rodriguez has offered to let you stay with her and Cam," Katelynn said. Ivy stopped crying and looked at Cam who gave her a nod with a smile. "The only problem is that you need to get your stuff from your father's apartment. Do you want someone to go and get it for you?" Ivy shook her head.

"Can I get it later? He leaves for a business trip in a few days for like a month and a half." Katelynn nodded.

The two adults started to walk out when Mari called out to them. "Um, I was hoping that Cam and Ivy could come with me and my friend Joey to Jump City. And Tim is coming with us." She gave "the look" to the adults. Ivy and Cam saw and followed Mari and did what she did. The two women walked toward the door and whispered to each other.

They came back tentatively. "Sure," Ms. Rodriguez said with an accent thicker than Cam's, "Cam, you need to come home and get some clothes."

"'Kay. See you guys tomorrow." Cam said. She hugged Ivy goodbye, and then Mari.

"So, are you going to leave too?" Ivy asked. Mari shook her head. "Alright, so tell me: do you like Joey?" The question threw Mari off a little.

"What?!" Her eyes were shifting around. "I don't know what you mean, I mean, I like him as a friend, but nothing more." Mari was starting to get worried. All Ivy could do was smile. "Ah, um, uh." Mari let out a sigh. "Is it that obvious?" Ivy started to laugh at Mari. "I mean, I've always fallen for the bad boys, but when I first saw him-- okay, the first time I saw him, I hated him, but when I started to get to know him better… I don't know." She collapsed on the bed. "Swear to me that you won't tell a soul. That includes Cam."

"I swear." Ivy spat in her hand and held it out to Mari. Mari looked at her like she was wearing the Pope's hat while claiming to be a ninja. "What, y'all don't do this up here?" Mari just shook her head no. Ivy shrugged, wiping her hand on the blanket. "So, tell me more about Joey. What do you like most about him?"

Mari thought about this for a second. "His eyes. They reveal all of his emotions, even when he doesn't know it. Also, their amethyst color is just breath-taking."

"HE HAS PURPLE EYES?! SINCE WHEN?!" Mari laughed, and then hit her friend with a pillow. She was going to have a lot to tell Ivy about.

Ok. I have one random question for you guys. Where did the whole Speedy Cheshire shipping begin? Was it an original comic pair, or did some random person first start liking them and other people followed? This has been bugging me all week! Please help me! Review!


	14. Home, Sweet, Home

Here's the new chapter.

Chapter 13

After talking to Ivy, Mari wet to Wayne Manor to pack up what little she brought with her. As she was packing, she told Joey and Tim her plan of what to do when they got there. That night, Mari spent most of her time staring out the windows in her room. She kept thinking about what would happen when she got home, if her plan would work, and if she should try a new hairstyle. What could she say, she was still a girl and did actually care about what she looked like to other people.

The next morning, Mari Tim, Scott, and Joey all left he manor early and went to pick up Cam and Ivy. When they arrived at Cam's house, Mari had to make Cam unpack fifteen of her sixteen bags. "There is a mall there, Cam, you can buy things there. So let's go." It was about an hour later that they picked up Ivy at the hospital in normal clothes. She had on a brown shirt that had a bunny on it that said "I'm not mean, you're just a sissy." She had on glasses and had a small bag of stuff. As they pulled up, Ivy got in the car next to Cam. She looked at Cam and started to laugh; Cam was not a morning person. Her hair was in a giant puff and she looked like she hadn't slept in a week. She was wearing a dark blue shirt that said "Hackers - R - Us." with a keyboard under it.

"So, I take it you got up earlier than normal," Ivy said, trying not to laugh too hard. Cam rolled her eyes and tried to sleep in the car. Right when she was about to fall asleep, the car came stopped.

"We're at the airport. Let's get onto the plane and take these two fugitives back to their parents," Tim said, getting out of the driver's seat. Scott got out from the passenger's seat, with Mari sliding out from where she was sitting between Tim and Scott. From the backseat, Joey and Ivy both came out the doors, with Ivy pulling Cam from her seat.

"Just a few steps, Cam, and you can sleep o the plane," Ivy said, dragging her half-asleep friend into the plane. Mari stood next to the car and paused.

"I know you're scared, but the only reason we're taking this is because it will get us to Jump faster," Tim said, leaning up against the car next to Mari. "I bet your mom and dad miss you."

"Don't know, don't care," she mumbled, reaching in her shirt. Mari drew out a necklace. It was a long metal chain with two rings on it. One had a jewel on it, and the other was just a band. She clasped both in her hand. "let's just get this plane ride over and done with." She walked onto her grandfather's private jet and took a seat.

"Why did she inherit the stick that's up her dad's butt?" Tim mumbled as he walked up the steps onto the jet.

The plane landed about two hours later and Mari couldn't get off the plane fast enough. The others followed, confused how she just ran out. While Mari had pent the trip looking onto her necklace for dear life, and breathing deeply, the others had a somewhat good time. Cam used the ride to get some sleep and fix her hair. Joey, Scott, Ivy, and Tim, played cards the entire time. Joey kept winning almost every game. As they walked up onto the tarmac to see a stretch limo waiting for them. It took about fifteen minutes of driving when they reached the bay.

"You can drop us off here," Mari said. She got out, followed by Joey and Tim. The others looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. As they walked out, they looked at the beach that stood before them.

"You know, the limo could have taken us to your driveway, instead of right here. Unless you live on the beach like a bunch of bums," Scott said, rubbing the back of his head. Joey rolled his eyes. Before Cam an Ivy could say something, Tim, Mari, and Joey covered Ivy, Cam, and Scott's eyes with a blindfold.

"Have you finally been hit in the head hard enough? Why did you just blindfold us?" Cam shouted trying turning back toward Mari.

"Sorry, but we have to do this. "Joey, go," Mari said as she looked over at Joey. He nodded and muttered his mantra under his breath. Soon, the three blindfolded teens were being led onto something. They don't know how, but they felt the ground they were standing on move. Soon, they felt their leaders lead them to an area of land. They also heard Joey start panting.

"I definitely need some practice before I do that again." They felt their blindfold taken off and they saw the same beach they were staring at earlier. "Mari, you do know that when we get inside, we are going to see your dad. You are aware of that, right?" Joey told her as they walked through the doorway. As they entered, they heard a chorus of ooh's and ah's. Tim rolled his eyes. They walked up to an elevator and got in.

"I know that. Right now, I'm tying to come up with what I'm going to say to him. It isn't as easy as it sounds. Especially now that we know he has a lot of what to do." Everyone looked at her. She turned and tried to walk away when a black barrier stopped her. "What, can't handle a joke?" She said, laughing nervously. "Fine. But you're coming with me," Mari said, grabbing Joey's collar and walking through the door.

As they entered, they saw that everyone but Lilly and Brian was in the living room. Rachel and Elle were sitting at the table; Rachel was reading while Elle was drawing in her sketchbook. Gar and Vic were playing a video game with Kevin watching, Claire was reading a teen magazine on the couch, and Terra was in the kitchen area, helping Kori cook. Richard was even there, pacing back and forth while talking on the phone.

"I really hope you're not cooking again, Mom." Mari said, tying to get everyone's attention. Joey followed her in and went to his mom, who was standing by now. She hugged him and looked like she was about to cry. It looked like she whispered something, because he nodded his head yes. He turned to look at Elle, who pushed him, angry he had left without telling her. Mari smiled and looked at her dad. That smile faded as he walked over but contrary to the long lecture she expected he hugged her.

"If you ever scare me and your mother like that again, I swear you will be grounded until you're fifty thee," he said. Mari nodded as Kori came up and hugged her.

"I'm sorry, you guys. I really am. You're not going to torture me with your cooking, are you?" Mari looked really scared. Kori shook her head. "Also, before you give me your sentence, I, uh, brought some friends," Mari finished. Everyone looked up at the door as Tim, Scott, Cam, and Ivy all walked in. Richard's eyes grew and looked at Mari. "Now dad, they have super-powers. Well, at least Cam and Ivy do, I don't know about Scott, honestly." Cam, Ivy, and Scott were all wide-eyed until Cam's state of shock wore off.

"Hey, Mr. and Mrs. G. How's it goin'?" Cam said, waving to Richard and Kori. "Mari is right though, we do have powers. See?" She closed her eyes. A little while passed before something happened; her hair straightened and went up in a ponytail. Her skin lightened from her tan shade. Then, her eyes turned from brow to a beautiful shade of blue. She smiled, looking around the room. "What, never seen a shape-shifter before?" She said in Mari's voice. Gar started laughing. Suddenly, her hair was shorter, but the same color. She also grew about half a foot. Her skin lightened a lot. Everyone saw two Richards and started laughing at this. She changed back to normal. Her nails were now sunshine yellow. "That was the fastest I have ever changed before," she said giddily. Cam smiled and looked over at Ivy. She was staring absent-mindedly at a little flower pot that seemed to be decorated by a little kid, probably Lilly. She looked at the soil frowned and did something with her hand before looking up and seeing everyone starting at her. She blushed and waved hi to everyone.

"Hello ,Ivy. I'm sorry about what happened. Are you better?" Kori asked hugging the other red head. She sounded sympathetic. Ivy nodded head.

"Yes, ma'am. But thank you for asking." She pulled away and went back to staring at the plant.  
"May I ask whose plant this is?"

Elle answered. "My little sister's. But it's not growing so we're thinking of throwing it away."

"Don't do that. That little thing just needs a little help." she said smiling. Elle looked confused, but just shrugged.

Mari took this opportunity to introduce everyone. "Guys, these are my new friends here in Jump. That's Elle," she said while pointing at Elle, who just nodded with a frown on her face. "That's Kevin." Kevin nodded and replied "hey" to the visitors. "You already know Joey and my mom and dad." Mari skipped over them, since they had already met them. "That's Rachel and Gar." They both nodded and said hello. "That's Vic." He nodded, also saying "hey". "Karen." She said hello, too. "Oh, and that's Claire and Terra." Everybody said hello again. "Everybody, these are my friends. Oh, and Scott," She looked over at Scott, who was sticking his tongue out at Mari. She made a face back at him. "Anyways, This is my uncle, Tim." he said "hey" to the people he didn't know. "My really close fiend Ivy, the reason I left." Ivy's eyes lowered as she waved. "I kidding Ive, you know I love you." She quickly hugged her friend. "And this is my other really close friend and sister, Cam." Mari wrapped her arm around Cam and Ivy and smiled. "So," she said looking back at her dad, "how long am I grounded for?" Richard walked to her.

"Three weeks. Both of you." Joey and Mari both hung their heads. Rachel and Kori went over and whispered something to Richard. He nodded. "It started two weeks ago." Mari and Joey looked shocked. "Now, go to your rooms before I change my mind." He pointed toward the door. The two grounded teens both made a mad dash through it. Rachel followed, making sure they didn't kill each other to get to tier rooms.

"I'm going to show Joey where his new room is," Rachel said as she walked out if the room. She pecked her husband on the cheek and left the main room with Cam and Elle sizing up each other

As the three walked away from the room, there was silence. Mari looked at Joey. "You never answered my question," She said, walking next to Joey.

"What?" Joey looked confused. Rachel, who was walking in front of them, was listening but trying not to look interested.

"You know, why you followed me onto the train." Joey looked over at her.

"Well, a part of my powers is empathy. You know what that means, right?" Mari nodded. "I could tell that you were heading toward the garage so I hurried and grabbed some things and followed you. You're not mad I did, are you?" He asked. Mari smiled.

"No. I'm really happy that you did, since you paid the train tickets to get there. Thanks, for that, by the way." Absorbed in the conversation, they almost walked into Rachel, who had stopped at a door.

"Here is your new room, Joey. We brought over some things from home, but you can decorate it however you want. Mari, you should go ahead and to your room. I'll see you both tomorrow," Rachel said. She waved to Joey and Mari and left to head back to the main room.

"'Night, Joey," Mari said as she walked down the hall toward her room.

"Later, Mari" was the last thing Mari heard as she walked down the hall. As she turned the corner, she finally realized something: she had broken up with her boyfriend. While in Gotham she kept thinking that it was for the better, that she was going to be happier without him. She stayed wit that last thought until she reached her room. The first thing she saw was that her things had been put in her new room. The next thing she saw was that on top of the thing sin her box was two pictures. One was the picture of her and X at school dance. The other was the picture of Mari and all of her friends from Gotham, minus X, at the park. She grabbed the one of her and X, clutched it to her, went over to her bed, and let one thought play over and over again in her head: her and her boyfriend just broke up. That night, Mari cried herself to sleep.

So, I've had a bad couple of weeks. First, my dad went into the hospital to have surgery on a diseased colon. He's better and I'm going to see him over Thanksgiving Break. I also found out that I have B's in all of my classes, but my electives of course. I just really need can't wait for next weekend. We get Halloween off. Yea! So, happy early Halloween. Thank you, all two of you, that reviewed and gave me the great information on Speedy and Cheshire. Please review, it will make me feel a lot better.


	15. The Slumber Party

Chapter 14

The next day was very hard for the teens, especially Elle and Cam. They found a way to fight about everything they could. Ivy was just asking questions here and there, but wasn't as annoying as the two girls fighting.

Joey, Kevin, and Ivy all sat on the couch. Joey was trying to read a new book while Kevin was trying to help calm Ivy down her nerves when the girls started fighting again.

"And I'm telling you that s an ugly top. Nobody would wear that, let alone buy that stupid thing," Cam shouted from the kitchen toward Elle. Elle was wearing a button down, light blue top that looked a lot like her school uniform with a patch on it and a tie worn loosely around her neck.

"You're just jealous that you're not _this_ creative."

"Oh, I'll show you how creative I am, fenómeno," Cam said to Elle, pushing up her sleeves and balling her fist. The two of them started to yell back and forth. Everyone in the room tuned and looked at them. They know that the were going to start fighting very soon

"STOP!!!" rang throughout the room, and everyone looked over at Ivy. She stood up, took off her glasses, and walked up to Cam and Elle, who were staring at her. "Now is not the time for you two to be fighting." She turned to Elle. "What time is it?" Elle shrugged and looked over at Kevin, who had his cell phone out.

"It's 10:37. Why?"

"Maris never in her room past 7. I'm scared that something's wrong. AND, as two of her friends, you two are coming with me. So, you either come with me voluntarily, or I'll hog tie y'all and drag you to her room. It's your pick," ivy said. Soon, both girls were running out of the room. Ivy smiled, put her glasses back on, and looked back at Joey and Kevin. "We'll be back later." She walked out of the room, trying to catch up with Cam and Elle.

As Ivy reached Mari's room, she saw a very scared Cam and Elle. Before Ivy could ask what was wrong, Elle answered, "We tried to go in, but she yelled at us to go away. Has she ever been like this before?"

"Well, the last time she was in bed after 10, she was really sick and couldn't even go to school for like, a month. But she never kicked me out. Heck, she would do the opposite," Cam answered. "It was her family who would kick me out. They didn't want me to get sick or somehow cause her to get sicker." She shrugged. "I don't think she's sick though. I mean, we all saw her yesterday." They all thought about what could be wrong when Cam and Ivy's eyes bugged out.

"X!" They both yelled before beating at the door.

"What does this have to do her boyfriend?" Elle asked. Cam and Elle both looked at each other and then to Elle, but then back to the door.

"Mari! Came on, chica." We know you're in there. We want to come in," Cam was shouting through the door. Soon, the door opened, but it wasn't Mari who answered the door, but Titan. He walked over to Cam, lay down and whined. Ivy, Cam and Elle all petted him and walked in, following Titan into the room. They saw that the room had been decorated a little, but what caught their attention was a bump. As he dug, the bump moved and a hand swatted at him.

"Go away, Ti," came a muffled reply from the blankets.

"We're not going away just yet, Mari," Elle said. Mari's head popped up from under the blankets. At fist, she looked shocked that Titan had said something, but she looked at the three girls standing in her room and frowned. Her sunglasses where off, revealing blood-shot eyes.

"GO away," Mari grumbled. She was about to pull the blanket over her head when the blanket flew up into the air and just stayed there. At first, Mari looked at Elle. Elle saw this and shrugged. Mari looked around and saw that Cam wasn't there. Soon, though, she appeared again, holding the blanket.

"That was for your own good." Cam smiled and threw the blanket to the side, landing on top of Titan.

"What do you guys want?" Mari asked madly while looking for her sunglasses.

"We wanted to check in on you. How are you feeling?" Ivy asked, looking sympathetic. Mari looked down.

"Like someone's doing the Mexican hat dance on my heart," Mari mumbled.

"Cam went over to Mari, who was sitting up now, and wrapped he arms around her heart-broken friend. "Aw, come here, chica. We'll go and kill him and make him sorry that he ever broke your heart," Cam promised. Elle, still standing near the door, finally figured out what was wrong.

"You and X broke up?" Elle asked, looking at Mari.

"Sort of. I caught him cheating on me with Balie," Mari explained. Elle immediately regretting saying anything.

"If you want me to, I can make it so he gets mauled by a bear," Elle said, cracking her knuckles. Mari laughed.

"El, you can't even turn into a full adult tabby cat. But thank you for the offer, though," Mari said. Elle chuckled and turned into a little kitten. As the purple kitten hopped onto Mari's lap, Cam came up with an idea.

"You know what you need?" Mari shook her head, still petting Elle in her kitten form. "Slumber party. Juts us girls. Let's see, we'll need ice cream, and lots of it, junk food, pizza, lots of crying movies, and, well, I'll need to go to the store to pick everything up myself," Cam said, starting to pace the room when Elle got up, transformed back into her human form, and grabbed her cell phone. "What are you doing?" Cam asked, seeing Elle on her cell.

"Ordering pizza. What kind do the two of you eat?" Elle said, having her hand over the speaker.

Ivy was the first to answer. "I'm an organic vegetarian, and Cam likes cheese."

Elle nodded and turned back to the phone. "Yeah Sam, that's right. I need two large veggie pizzas, a large cheese, and a large pepperoni pizza…. Yeah, we'll be by to pick it up….Okay."

"_We'll _come by to pick it up? Who's we?" Cam asked, with a list in her hand.

"I'm coming with you to get the stuff. I've lived in Jump City my entire life; I know where everything is everywhere. So, do you want to walk or get someone o drive us? I think it would be better to get someone to drive, since with that list, it looks like we'll have a lot of things. Also, how are you going to pay for this?" Mari leaned over and grabbed her purse. She rummaged around and grabbed her wallet and pulled out a credit card, and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote a note.

"Here," she handed Cam the credit card and the note, "show this to the cashiers and you can charge it to my account. I'll explain it to my dad; just don't go off and buy the mall," Mari said with a half smile. "And I think m mom should be home soon with your mom, Elle. Ask her if she can take you, because she probably can." Elle and Cam nodded, and headed out of the room, arguing quietly to each other. Ivy let out an exasperated breath and landed on the bed much like Mari did a few days earlier. "They won't stop fighting. It's getting on my last nerves. If this keeps going on, I'm going to strangle them with vines covered in thorns," Ivy threatened. Mari laughed and laid down next to Ivy. "So, do you still like Joey? 'Cause if so, you have some competition with that Claire girl." Mari smiled and shook her head.

"No. You know how your mind and body knows when something bad is going to happen and takes you over? Well I think that my mind knew that something with X was going to happen, so it wanted to show me that I can easily find a new boyfriend. I don't think I ever liked him like that, but it did sort of help with my decision to break it off with X. So, how do you think we can get Cam and Elle to have a normal conversation that doesn't lead to them fighting with each other?" Mari said. They sat there and thought a little bit.

"Maybe if we get them to start talking about something that they both like, then they will stop fighting, talk, and possibly maybe find more stuff they have in common and become friends. Now, the question is what else they have in common," Ivy reasoned. They thought about it a little longer when Mari struck an idea.

"This Life! That teen soap! Cam and Elle are addicted to it. And I know how we're going to do this," Mari said, smiling and looking at Ivy. "Here's the plan."

Later that night, Cam and Elle returned to the tower with a bunch of shopping bags full of things, a bunch of chick flicks, and 4 large boxes of pizza. All of which was being carried by the reluctant boys. Cam and Elle were about to go through the door and head through the hallway when they were met by Mari and Ivy. Ivy looked they same, while Mari, on the other hand, looked like the walking dead. Her hair was in a messy pony tail with pieces out and sticking up all over. Even though she had her sunglasses on, you could tell that there were bags under her eyes. She had on an oversized sweatshirt and sweats. All in all, she looked like a mess.

"Mari," Kori said, heading over to her daughter and hugging her. "What's wrong?" The rest of the adults all looked at Mari.

"Nothing. Well okay, not nothing, but you don't need to worry about me," Mari said. She looked at her dad, who looked like he was ready to find and attack the person who made his little princess upset. "The truth is that… I was dating someone behind your back." Mari looked down toward the floor, hoping that the tears wouldn't start falling.

"WHAT?!?!?! You know the rules about you dating! How could keep that big of a secret from your mother and I?" Richard was shouting so loudly, Titan started to whine and laid down next to Kori, whose head was down now, too. "Wait, you knew she was dating this guy. What else don't I know? Why did you not tell me about him, Kori?"

"What was it you told the last one? 'I'm not scared to go back to jail'? Was that it? Besides, he reminded me of you, Richard. Though now, not so much." Kori answered, still having one arm around Mari.

"Whatever," Richard mumbled. So, what happened? Wait, he didn't break up with you did he?" Richard guesses, looking like he was going to beat this kid to a pulp. No one broke up with his little girl.

"No," Mari said softly, hugging herself. Now Richard was think the worst and was about half-way out the door when Mari spoke up again. "I broke up with him. I caught him cheating on me with, uh…" She was about to say Baile when she saw that her dad was angry and if he found out the daughter of one of his closest friend was two-timing her boyfriend, it wouldn't end well for anyone. "A cheerleader. I didn't get a good look at her." Now tears were threatening to pull a Niagara Falls and rush down her cheeks. Richard saw this, moved toward Mari, and looked at her.

"His name?" He demanded. Mari smiled through her tears.

"Just don't kill him." She saw the look on his face and knew that he was going to have someone keep an eye on him. "Charlie Red, but he goes by X. I would have stayed in my room, but I was wondering if there was a TV and a DVD player that I can have in my room." she asked looking at Vic. He smiled at the young girl.

"We sure do Little Lady. Let me go and find it and bring it to your room," he said. Mari smiled again.

"Thank you." She looked around the room, noticing something was different. "Where are Tim-Tim and Scott at? I haven't seen them all day."

"They're out somewhere. Scott said something about the Tower being boring," Joey said. "I think they said they were going to a movie marathon."

"Okay, well, enough with the chit chat, we girls are going to be in Mari's room, and no boys or adults allowed. So, adios," Cam said, snatching some bags and a box of pizza from the boys and leading the way to Mari's room. Ivy, Elle, and Mari all followed in suit, taking shopping bags and a box of pizza with them.

When the girls got to the room, they unloaded the bags. "All right, we have all of the necessities," Elle said. She reached into the bags, listing things off as she saw them. "We've got lots of junk food, enough ice cream to probably make our own arctic here in the tower, tear-jerking movies that could make even you grandfather cry," Elle said looking at Mari, who was now smiling," pizza, and" --she reached into a bag-- "every teenage girls' bible." She held at least 15 magazines. They ranged from fashion to gossip. "Let the slumber party begin."

Soon, the girls were all sitting around, listening and singing along to Mari's music player, reading magazines, and eating junk food. They all were have a good time. "Look Cam," Mari said, holding a bag of chips and munching from them, "I don't care what you say, not everything in those gossip magazines is true. They pay people to make those things up. Once I read that my dad had a third eye, five wives, and is the lizard lord. And that's just my dad. Though one was right on the nose with my mom saying that she was a space alien." The girls started to laugh. They were all doing fine until a song on Mari's music player started.

"Man, I hate it when people remix songs. It just ruins the song." Elle said, sketching in her sketch book with color pencils in a case in color order from lightest to darkest.

"I made that song." Cam said, looking at Elle from over the top of her magazine. Ivy face palmed while Mari whined. Soon the two started fighting. Mari and Ivy knew that it was time to deploy plan Marlina.

"Hey Mari, did you see the last episode of This Life? They had it on at the hospital, but it was in Spanish. And I, unlike you and Cam, can't speak Spanish."

"Nope, I was getting settled in and I haven't grasped what channel is what yet. I want to know what's up with Marlina."

"She was back in the hospital for about 5 weeks in a coma, but is now up with amnesia," Elle said not looking up from her sketch book.

"And Dan is using that to his advantage to get back with her, even though Sam is also trying to get her to date him too, since Andy is traveling with Jennet who's trying to get with him," Cam added," looking back at her magazine.

They looked at each other and said at the same time, "Because Jennet and Calvin broke up again!" They smiled at each other.

"You like This Life Too?" Cam asked, bringing down the magazine and smiling.

"Yeah! Remember last season when Leon and Malina finally got together? I didn't think he had the brain power to finally kiss her," Elle said, still drawing in her sketch book.

"I know this will sound mean, but Malina should have almost drowned earlier I kept saying, if he waited around any longer, she was going to be gone. He lost her twice, and after the lake incident, I was happy to see them _finally_ get together. Though, I always thought that she would be the accident prone one and not her twin sister." Cam said. The rest of the night, Cam and Elle talked more about This Life and other things. Near the end of the night, each of the girls had a carton of ice cream (two, in Mari's case) and they were getting close to finishing the traditional break up ritual. "All right, according to the article in All Girls Magazine's May issue about getting over break ups, we have eliminated all things that show his and the evil she-witch formally known as Balie," Cam said, looking at ivy who was finishing cutting out X's and Balie's face from a photo. "And we got rid of everything that would remind you of them." Elle had penned out their name in Mar's address book and was finishing deleting their names form Mari's phone. "So, the only thing we have to do before we start watching the movies is get rid of the final thing that will remind you of him." Ivy looked at Mari, while Elle looked confusingly at all three of them. "Hand over the earrings Mari." Elle looked over at Mari and watched as she took her hair out and pushed it behind her ears. There on Mari's lobes were little birds were that looked like robins. Mari took them off and looked at them in her hands. Slowly the tears fell from her eyes.

"I don't think I can." She whispered. Tears were now flowing down her cheeks. Ivy got up and sat next to Mari and hugged her, while cam did the same thing, but gently took the earrings from her.

"We'll just hide these then. Elle?" Cam said handing Elle the earrings. Elle nodded, knowing what she was suppose to do. She changed into a small bird and flew up into Mari's closet. There, Mari had a few of her things hung on hangers, but most of the stuff was boxes at the bottom. She looked around and saw a shelf on the top of the closet. She flew up and placed them near the back of the wall. As she was about to fly away when something came into view. She was about to take a closer inspection when the lights out in the room turned off and heard sounds from the TV. She turned into a kitten, since she wasn't so sure about flying in the dark, walked to the edge of the shelf, leaving the weird object and heading over to the bed with the others on it. She laid down in Mari's lap, who was surrounded by Ivy and Cam, and started to lick her ice cream out of the carton. All three girls slept like that. For the first time in a few days, Mari slept well and didn't think about X, but thought about her friends.

Yes people, I'm still alive. I'm sorry I've been away, but here is my present to you all; A NEW CHAPTER!!! Please review and check out my profile. I've updated that too. Happy Holidays! I aslo wanted to say tht I own pretty much nothing.


	16. Tough Traning

Hi! I have finally got inspired to write this chapter. Also, my birthday was Sunday, so I am now 15 and get my permit in a week. I have one think I would like to saw before you read this chapter. Tim and Richard are pretty much brothers, since they were both adopted by Bruce. So their one, big, strangely functional family.

Chapter 16

As the week went by, everyone started to settle into a routine. Every morning after breakfast, Richard, Karen, and Gar left for work while Kori, Vic, and Rachel stayed home with the young teens after someone dropped Lily off at preschool. Even the teens got into a routine. Kevin spent a lot of time in the garage, experimenting with new inventions with his dad; Joey divided his time playing video games with Kevin, going out with Claire, reading, and having private practices with his mom; Claire, when not out with Joey, spent a lot of time with the girls at the mall.

Later in the afternoon, though, they all had training sessions. There, Kevin, Joey, Elle, Cam, Ivy and occasionally Claire, would practice their powers under the watchful eye of Vic, Rachel, and Kori while Tim and Scott practiced their martial arts. Mari usually just sat off to the side and helped where she could.

One day during training, Scott started to whine more than usual. "Why can't I fight anyone good?!"

Mari stood up from where she was sitting next to Ivy. "Will it get you to shut up if I fight you?" she offered. Instead of shutting up, he started laughing hysterically.

Slightly regaining his composure, Scott answered, "You want me to fight you? A girl? Ha! That would be so unfair."

"Fine," Mari said, walking toward him, "if it'll make you feel batter, I'll make sure to go easy on you." This caused Scott to laugh even louder then before.

"I'm one of the best fighters in Gotham City! Besides, girls can't fight! It's scientifically proven," he said between laughs. If Scott would have looked around him, he would have seen two different scenes. He would have seen Joey, Kevin, Tim, and Vic back away with hands up in surrender. He also would have seen six women about to try for the murder of a minor.

"You know what? Why don't you show a _little girl like me_ how a _big strong man_ like yourself fights," Mari said in a child-like voice.

"Fine. You're on. And don't worry; I'll go easy on you." Scott gave what he thought was a dashing smile and got into a simple fighting stance. Mari smirked and mimicked his stance in a clumsy way.

"Scott, I don't think you should do this," Tim said with worry in his voice. "Mari's really…"

"Delicate? Don't worry; I'll make sure not to hurt her too bad," Scott interrupted. Tim just shook his head as he stood beside Kori.

"I warned him" was the last thing Tim said before the fight began. Scott threw an easy punch toward the left side of Mari's face. When the punch came really close to making contact, Mari grabbed the incoming fist and flipped Scott over her shoulder.

"I thought you said you couldn't fight?" Scott said, getting up from the floor.

"No, you thought that I couldn't fight. Show me what you can _really_ do." She said, getting into a real fighting position and waiting for Scott to stand back up.

"Don't blame me if you get hurt," Scott said, getting into a fighting stance. The two started fighting once more. Every time one threw a punch, the other blocked. Scott did manage to kick Mari in the stomach, causing her to fall back. As she was about to hit the floor, she brought her hands up near her head , pushed off and did a back flip, landing in a crouching position.

"This is getting good," Cam said from the sidelines. "Ten bucks says Mari doesn't even break a sweat."

"I don't know, Scott seems like he could handle himself," Claire said, keeping her eyes on the fight. As the super powered teens talked on the sidelines, the adults talked, also watching the two teens kick and fight.

"So, you and Bruce have taught him well, but he's still no match for Mari," Kori said. Tim looked over at his sister-in-law in confusion.

"I thought you didn't approve of Mari fighting. If I remember correctly, you tried everything to keep her from fighting. You even told her that Tameranians didn't believe in fighting others," Tim said with a smile.

"Yes, yes I did. But I can still say my baby girl can fight."

Just as Tim was about to say something back, everyone heard an extremely loud "thud" followed by an "oof". Everyone turned around and saw Mari standing and Scott on the ground.

"Here's a little lesson you should learn: you just got your butt kicked by a girl, and most likely it will happen again. Girls are just as good fighters as guys are. And the next time you say girls are weak, make sure girls don't outnumber you and your puny strength." With that said, Mari walked out of the training room followed by a still-angry group of teenage girls.

As Scott stood up, he was met with two pairs of very angry eyes. "I went easy on her" was what Scott said before being slapped on the back of the head by Joey and Kevin before they, too, left the room. As Scott turned around, he saw Tim and Vic shake their heads and walk out of the room. Scott was about to follow when Rachel and Kori stepped in front of him to walk out. "Hey!" he shouted toward them. As soon as that word left his mouth, the two women turned around. Both of their eyes glowed. Scott jumped back fifteen feet. Kori and Rachel smirked and walked out of the room, talking about nothing in particular.

Scott stood in the room by himself. As he was about to walk out of the room, he shouted "WOMEN ARE NUTS!"

So, there you go. I started softball and so I will be writing less, but my chapters will come. Also, if you haven't checked out Break Away yet, I think you should. Please review, as a late birthday to me. Please.


	17. Knowledge and Pizza

After the lovely training session with Scott was over, Mari, Elle, Cam, Ivy, Kevin, Claire, and Joey all hung out in Mari's room watching TV.

Elle sat next to the window where she still had her sketch book at, coloring feverously. Mari laid in the middle of her bed with her head hanging off upside down watching the characters on the screen. On one side of Mari was Cam sitting crossed legged, leaning her head back against the wall, changing her hair color every minute for practice. On the other side of Mari was Joey and Claire. Ivy sat on the ground next to Mari's head. Kevin sat at Mari's desk with the chair turned toward the TV. Mari's room was almost set up the way she wanted it; the sheets and bed spread that she bought for her other new house was here now, along with a small book case. She has filled them up yet, but was going to work on that later.

Everyone was having a somewhat good time trying to figure out this weird cartoon on the screen was all about when Mari's computer started to play a song.

"Hey Mari, who's ReddXmarksthecool81?" Cam, Mari and Ivy all shot up and looked at the computer. Mari flipped off the bed, kicking everyone close in the process.

"Hey!" Claire shouted, rubbing her head.

"Oh you'll get over it." Mari said, standing in front of the laptop. "That boy will get himself hurt if he keeps this up." Mari kept typing things not looking up from the screen.

"What that little worm say?" Cam asked rubbing her head still.

"He's trying to apologize and he wants me back. Ugh! He makes me sick."

"I know what can take your mid off of the worm. Actually I'm surprised that Cam didn't come up with this earlier." Everyone looked at her. "Pizza and movie night."

"You're a genius, Ive" Cam said getting up and hugging her friend.

"I cool with that, I think my dad told me that there's like an entire library of DVDs, CDs, video games and things like that." Kevin said.

"I'm in too. Just so long as we get veggie pizzas." Elle said packing up her sketch stuff.

"Yeah." Ivy said standing next to Elle.

"No way. Meat Lovers all the way!" Kevin said defending the meat pizzas. Cam, Joey, Claire, and Mari just stared at them for a little bit before leaving them there to fight.

Later that night (after ordering 14 pizzas and getting rid of the parents), everyone was sitting at the table with two pizza boxes in front of them. Kevin had meat lovers, Joey had pepperoni, Claire had Supreme, Ivy and Elle both had veggie, while Cam had cheese and Mari had pepperoni with onions.

"That has to be the nastiest pizza on Earth. How do you eat that?" Kevin asked looking at Mari's pizza.

"It's not that bad. Besides, I've had the nastiest things ever. You don't believe me," Mari said picking up a pepper from a box, "try my mom's to cooking." she shuddered and about took a bight out of the pepper.

"Don't eat that!" Kevin shouted from across the table. "Those are like some genetically mutated, seriously hot peppers!"

"Oooo, I'm so scared of a pepper." And with that, Mari took a bight of the hot pepper. Everyone looked at her waiting for Mari to jump up and try to put out the fire that was on her tongue. "See," Mari said, after waiting a few minuets, "nothing happened." And with that, she finished the pepper and reached for some more. Everyone laughed and continued eating. "I told you, this is nothing. My mom's cooking far worst."

"That's nothing," Joey said, sitting next to Claire, "our mom has some how found a way to burn salad."

"And water too." Elle said, grabbing for another piece of veggie pizza. "Remember that time she tried to make salad and almost burnt the house down." Everyone started laughing. Soon Mari's phone started going off.

"Pick up your phone! Ring Ring! Hello, it's me, your phone! Pick up! Pick up your phone!"

"Opps, let me just get that. Hello? Go die in a hole, Jerk!" Letting put an aggravated sigh, Mari closed the phone, almost crunching the phone in the process.

"Who was that?" Cam asked through a full mouth.

"How many other jerks do I know that I would tell them to go die in a hole?" Ivy and Cam both nodded in agreement. "The next time he calls let me answer it." Cam said, wiping her mouth of grease from the pizza. "By the way, where are your parents?"

"Out to dinner. They all are. Lily is in bed. Why?" Elle asked picking off black olives from her slice of pizza.

"You'll see." Cam said. The second she started to reach for a new slice of pizza, Mari's phone started going off again. Cam just dropped the pizza and answered the phone. "'ello?… OH, _hola_ X." Cam said with a devilish smile. "No, you can't talk to Mari.… Why? Oh, because you going to listen to me now. Okay? If I ever find out that you're trying to contact Mari and apologize again, I will tear you into a million pieces, staple you back together, kick you butt all the way to Japan, kill you, and what ever else I feel like doing at the time.… Wanna bet that I can't do that? … Well, you can tell that two-timing, ex-friend of ours Balie that we're not talking to her. And don't try to twist that around so that we come out as the bad guys 'cause I will tell her that when I get back home. _Véale luego _X." She flipped the phone closed and muttered something that only Mari, sitting next to her, and Elle could hear. As the word came out of her mouth, Mari bopped Cam in the back of her head. "Sorry. It just sort of slipped out."

"If I ever catch you using that word again, so help Cam!" Mari said looking very angry.

"What does _troq_ mean?" Elle asked from across the table.

Mari took a deep breath and looked at Elle. "It's a word from my mom's native language, Tamaranian. Its a very bad word people from other planets call Tamerainieans. When they call us… that, they're calling us nothing, worthless. The only reason I know that word is that in the fifth grade, some kid somehow learned what it meant and called me and Cam that. I remember we went back to my house and told my mom what happened. She was so angry that she went right to the kid's father and… well, I really don't know what she did, but we were transferred out of that school and never saw that kid again." Mari said, smiling a small smile, but still looking sad.

"I heard that Bobby's dad is still in the hospital." Cam, said trying to make Mari laugh. It looked like it wasn't working.

"Well," Kevin said, looking around the room, "on that happy note, what movie are we watching?"

"I vote comedy." Elle said

"Horror." Joey said.

"Romance." Claire said.

"Sci-fi." Kevin said.

"Chick flick." Cam offered.

"Documentory." Ivy said. Everyone looked at her with a wondering look. "What?"

"Action." Mari said. Everyone stared fighting with each other over the movie. Ivy looked around and walked off. She soon returned with a bowl, a sheet of paper, and seven pens/pencils. She soon started tearing the paper into seven

little pieces. She looked around and saw everyone still fighting.

"QUIET!" Ivy shouted, almost knocking her glasses off of her face. Everyone turned to look at her. "Hi. Okay, write your movie choice on this piece of paper, then fold it in half and put it in the bowl. Okay?" everyone simmered down and nodded and took a piece of paper and a writing utensil. As soon as everyone was done another argument stared up: who was going to draw the winning movie? Everyone believed that each other would cheat. In the middle of the argument the doors to the ops roomed opened with Titan caring Lily on his back like he was a horse.

"Hey Lily," Elle said smirking and picking up her little sister, "Can you do me a favor?" Lily nodded her little head, still grasping a blue blanket in one hand and sucking the thumb of the other hand. Elle balanced the little girl in one arm and reached for the bowl with paper in it. "Can you pick out just one piece of paper?" The little girl nodded and reached in with the hand that had the soaked thumb. She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Elle. "Thank you Lily." She kissed Lily on the head and put her down. "And the winner is," She unfolded the paper "Comedy. Yes!" Elle jumped up and down and reached for the movie she grabbed. "Let's watch the movie." She grabbed Lily and headed toward the couch. "Pop the movie in Kev." She tossed the movie back, not really aiming, and sat down on the couch with Lily on her lap. The flying DVD soared toward Ivy, who was cleaning her glasses. Right when she was about to get hit, she reached up and caught it, shocking everyone.

"What?" Ivy asked, putting her glasses back on. "Whatever. Here." She handed Kevin the DVD and headed to the couch also. Everyone shrugged and joined them. Joey and Claire sat side by side near the edge of one side of the couch. Kevin sat on the other after putting in the DVD. Elle already had her spot in the middle with Lily in her lap. Cam, Ivy, and Mari all sat on the ground with Titan.

A few hours later, the doors to the ops room opened up reviling all of the adults walking in from dinner. "Hey," Gar asked looking at the TV still on with credits rolling, "I don't see the kids any where." Karen was just about to give an idea when a light snoring came from the other side of the couch. All of the adults looked and saw eight sleeping kids and a dog sprolled all over the place. Joey had his arm around Claire and they were both asleep, still sort of sitting up. Elle was a sleep on her back with Lily on her stomach. The snoring was coming from Elle's mouth along with a small stream of droll. Kevin was lying on the couch also with his head close to Elle's. Ivy was asleep on the ground using her arms as a pillow. Cam was sitting up with her head resting on the couch. She too had a little bit of droll coming out. Mari was lying down next to Titan. Her head was using Titan's stomach as a pillow.

"Aww." Kori said looking at everyone. "Should we move them or what?"

"I say we should move them into their beds. It's not really comfortable to sleep on that thing." Rachel said. She was about to reach for Lily when Gar grabbed her first.

"I call dibs on the little one." Gar whispered/shouted as he ran out on the room as fast as her can without waking up the tiny, sleeping child.

Using her powers, Rachel lifted the two teens from the couch mumbling about immature husbands, and started down the hallway toward the kids' rooms.

Terra walked over to Claire and started trying to wake her. "Honey, come on. You have to move into your bed. Trust me, that isn't the most comfortable place to sleep." See that that wasn't working, she went toward a different direction. "Besides, you'll have horrible bed head in the morning." After the words came out of her mouth Claire started to move in a sleep walk like state through the doors. Terra and Brian both followed, diverting her from walking into walls.

"How about I take Cam and Ivy to a guest room and meet you at Mari's room after you drop her off." Kori suggested.

"Sure, but one thing. Where's Mari's room at?" Richard asked picking Mari up in his arms. Kori smiled and lifted both of the girls up so they were still asleep and off the ground.

"Just think like you. That's all you have to ever do." And with that, Kori carried the two girls out of the room. Richard looked at his daughter, asleep in his arms, and thought like he did.

As he walked through the hallway, he just let his feet carried him to his old room. As he opened the door, he saw all of his old furniture mixed with Mari's things. He smiled and laid Mari down in her bed. Titan soon waddled toward the bed and slept at the foot of the bed. Richard just stood by the door watching Mari sleep when a pair of arms wrapped around him.

"Ever think that our daughter would want to be a Titan?" Richard asked, still watching the sleeping pair.

"I knew that she would do great things. Being a Titans could help her," Kori said before walking into Mari's room and giving her a kiss on her forehead.

"She could get hurt, Kori." Richard said, leaving room.

"We took that chance. And with us around, they'll be well trained." Kori said looking at her husband. "Trust her."

"I just don't want her hurt. Can we talk about this in the morning?"

"You were the one who brought it up."

That night, in a village in Egypt, chaos spread through. Fires spread house to house, people ran in the steets screaming in panic. The only sound that could be heard over the roar of the fire was an evil laugh from a strange being in the sky shooting purple bursts at the village. "I'm coming for you sister, dear."


	18. Trouble!

I own nothing. See below the story.

As the weeks went by, everyone became more skilled with their powers. Even Mari got to work on her strength with her mom.

Fridays meant that the teens had a break. They often watched a movie while eating pizza. Tonight, they planned on actually leaving the tower. The only problem was that they couldn't decide what movie to see.

"If we go see Marooned Ninjas 5, we won't get out 'till late and we wouldn't have time to get pizza," Joey said. He was hogging the newspaper.

"We can go see the new Johnny Malcolm movie," Elle suggested.

"The only reason that you want to see that movie is because he supposedly takes his shirt off," Kevin countered. All of the girls wanted to see Vampyre Spy Academy with Johnny Malcolm, Kevin and Scott wanted to see Marooned Ninjas 5, and Joey just didn't want to go.

"You know who I heard was in it?" Mari said, trying to get the boys in. "I heard Vasilisa Hathaway was in it." That was all that needed to be said. All of the boys, including Joey, jumped up.

"Count us in!" All of the girls started laughing. Claire walked over to Joey.

"Better stop drooling, boy. You have a girlfriend," she reminded him. Joey smiled and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

"TMPDA!" Cam said, pretending to gag.

"TMPDA?" Elle asked, trying not to actually gag.

"It means 'Too Much Public Displays of Affection'," Mari said. "Now, let's get going. I seriously need some..." Mari was soon interrupted by a blaring alarm and flashing red lights.

"What's going on?" Ivy yelled over the blaring alarm with her hands over her ears.

"Trouble," Richard said, appearing out of nowhere. He was dressed in his Nightwing outfit. Appearing soon after was the rest of the adults dressed in their superhero outfits. Tim soon fell in with Titan and Lily following behind.

"What's up?" Tim asked as he came up to Nightwing.

"Something's up about ten miles outside of town," Cyborg answered, standing in front of the computer.

"Yeah, baby! Time to show the world what we can do!" Kevin said, pumping his fists in the air.

"NO," Nightwing said, whipping the smile off Kevin's face. "You kids aren't ready yet. We're going, you're staying."

"But Dad... Come on, they've been training really hard," Mari pleaded, walking up to her dad.

"Do you want them to go or you?" he replied. By now, Nightwing and Mari were standing right in front of each other.

"We've all worked really hard. Give us all a chance."

"No. You're never going out to fight. That's an order." Mari didn't reply to that, she just kept staring at him. Mask met sunglasses. "Let's get going, Titans." Titan started following Nightwing until Mari gave him a dirty look.

"I finally get to work with the Titans, cool," Tim said with a triumphant smile.

"No. You make sure that the kids stay here." Tim's smile fell.

"You're not my boss," Tim countered, starting to follow Nightwing.

"You're not in Bruce's jurisdiction here. I'm in charge, which means you'll listen to me," Nightwing said, starting to walk out. All of the teens looked at the other adults, Tim and Mari staring daggers at Nightwing. Starfire walked up to Mari and put her hands on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Sweety." Mari didn't respond. She just kept staring angrily at the door where Nightwing stood.

"We need to get going," Nightwing said and walked through the door. All of the adults followed, giving the kids encouraging smiles. Raven stopped and gave Lily a quick hug before she left.

When the last adult left, Tim walked up to Mari. "Listen, your dad can be a major jerk sometimes, but he's trying to protect you. Try not to take everything he says to heart." When he tried to put his hands on Mari's shoulders, Mari walked towards the door.

"Leave me alone," Mari said as she walked through the doors.

"Well, there goes our plans," Claire sighed. "I'm heading to my room."

"Is she going to be okay?" Elle asked. Kevin, Scott, and Ivy all looked worried as well.

"I don't know," Cam said. "I just don't know." Everyone just stood there.

"I'm heading to my room," Joey said. walking out the door.

"Well," Elle said, picking up Lily, "looks like it's TV and whatever we can find in the fridge tonight." Tim continued not to move, seemingly ignoring her.

"I know what you want to do," Cam said to Tim. "But if you go to her, she'll just get even more upset. Just let her ride this out." She handed Tim a carrot. "Just relax a little. She'll be fine." Tim took the carrot and went to sit with the rest of the kids after taking one last look at the door.

"I thought I would find you up here," Joey said as he walked onto the roof.

"Hey," Mari said, looking straight ahead at the ocean. She sat closer to the edge than normal with her arms hugging her legs. Her hair was down too, allowing the sea breeze to play with it. "You know you're making me nervous just standing there."

"Sure, thanks. I would love to sit down," Joey said, sitting down next to Mari. He could see that she had tear stains on her cheeks. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. Just peachy," Mari said with bitterness to the ocean.

"You know what's funny?" he asked. Mari looked at Joey with confusion. "It's very hard to lie to an empath." Mari turned and shook her head. "You know, you're right," he continued.

"Huh?"

"You're right. We should get the chance to go out and fight. Especially you. You train harder than any of us. But your dad has a point."

"Wait, you said..."

"I know what I said," Joey said, looking at Mari. "But your dad is just trying to protect you."

"You're starting to sound a lot like Tim," Mari mumbled. She looked at Joey.

"You're his only daughter. When you're practicing, I can feel his emotions. He's worried about your safety. He just wants to keep you safe," he said gently. Mari looked at Joey.

"That was really insightful. Did you come up with that on the walk up here or did you make it up as you went?" Mari said with a smile.

"A little bit of both, actually." Joey smiled too. They sat there for a little bit until a strong wind came and tried to push both of them off.

"Stupid wind," Mari said, getting up and walking farther away from the edge.

"So, when were you going to tell us that you're scared of heights?" Joey said, standing up to sit next to Mari.

"What? I'm not scared of heights," Mari replied. "I'm not scared of anything!" She put her hands on her hips, doing a superhero pose. "You're not buying this, are you?" Joey shook his head. "Thought not. Look, I'm not scared of heights. In fact, back in Gotham, I would climb to the roof of Wayne Manor and watch the stars. I am scared of falling, though. Oh, and storms freak me out a little bit." Joey kept looking at her. She was now wearing a sarcastic smirk. "Funny, isn't it? The daughter of Batman's famous ward and an alien warrior princess that can fly is scared of falling right out of the sky."

"I don't think it's funny. You put too much pressure on yourself. Look, being scared is perfectly okay. It means you're human." Mari turned and opened her mouth, but he spoke before she could. "Okay, in your case, half human. It just means you're normal. And don't even think about trying to correct me," he added when he saw Mari turn and try to correct him. "Really though, falling isn't that bad when you have people who will do everything they can to catch you." Mari just smiled. "I have an idea," Joey said, standing up and and holding his hand out to help Mari up. She hesitated. "Do you trust me?" Mari looked from the hand to his eyes. There was something in his eyes that said he wouldn't do anything to hurt her. "Do you trust me?" he repeated.

"Yes," Mari said before reaching for his hand. "Now, what are you doing?" Joey smiled.

"Just look at me and follow where I lead you." Joey took both of her hands in his and started walking. Mari did as she was told. After a few feet, he stopped. "Alright, you can look wherever you want."

"What are you talking..." She looked down to see them standing on a thin, black disk. Mari screamed a little bit. In doing so, she lost what little balance she had on her own and grabbed the only thing that could help keep her on the disk: Joey. It took a little bit for her to realize what she was doing. "Sorry," Mari mumbled, removing her arms from around him.

"Um, no problem," Joey said, hiding his face for a second. "Do you want to sit?" Mari nodded her head. Joey expanded the disk and helped her down. He sat down next to her before he lowered the disk at a slow speed. Mari cringed a little until she realized that nothing was going to happen to her. "See, nothing wrong at all with falling," Joey said. He levitated a rock and tried to skip it. It landed in the water with a loud "bloop". Mari started laughing. "Oh, so you think you can do any better than that?" Joey asked with a huff.

"Yes. In fact, I know I can do better than you." Joey smiled and levitated several more rocks up and put them in the space between them. Mari grabbed one and skipped it twice. "So," Mari continued, grabbing a rock and holding it, "how are practices going?"

"Fine. My mom has me working on transporting to different rooms in the Tower. I did have a problem when my shoes stayed in the gym and I transported out here on the rocks." Mari laughed. "Yeah, it's funny, but it hurt really badly." Mari stopped laughing a little. "So, how are your practices going with your mom?" Mari threw the rock and it skipped only twice again.

"Okay, I guess. I can lift a lot more weight than I thought any person could." She picked up another rock and sighed. "It's just, my mom keeps hoping that I can shoot starbolts and fly. I hate seeing her face when I fall on my butt or can't hit the targets. It makes me feel like I'm letting her down." Mari threw the rock and it only skipped once.

"You don't give yourself enough credit. Look, your parents would be proud of you even if you didn't have powers and were girl that couldn't hold her own in a fight." Mari looked at Joey and smiled.

"Aww, Joey's a little soft," Mari said. Joey looked at her and flexed his arms.

"I'm not soft. I'm a tough guy!" Joey picked up a stone and skipped it three times.

"Oh, you're so strong. I could never be as strong as you," Mari said, sarcasm in every word. She went to reach for the last rock at the same time as Joey. Their hands met for a few seconds before Mari pulled away, letting Joey have the rock. "So, do you charm Claire up here with your smooth words?"

"I've never actually brought Claire up here. She hates the wind, says it messes with her hair. Besides, she can do this," he said, motioning to them hovering over the ocean, "and more on her own." He levitated one last rock for Mari and they threw them at the same time. Joey's skipped four times. Mari's just kept skipping and skipping and skipping until it was out of sight. "I hate your super strength."

"You wish you could be a fourth as strong as me," Mari said, flexing her arm. Soon, she started laughing and Joey joined in. It took a while for them to calm down a little.

"Hey, why is your hair down?"

Back on land, unknown to the pair, someone was watching them with hateful eyes. "That's it. Here's where I draw the line. That girl is going to pay."

So, there you go, my new chapter. Only a little bit left in this story till the end! And then I have a sequel! Yea! Tell me, love it, hate it, send me in the reviews! Also, I started my sophomore year in High School. I'm taking all advance and honors classes, except Spanish. No hablo español. And I have to show choirs. So, my writing may come slower than normal, but faster than it took to put this up. Again, review and tell me what you think.


	19. The First Day of the Rest of Their Lives

Here I am again. I had sucha hard time updating, and I don't know why. Well, it could do with showchior practice every morning and every other monday, my part time job, school work, church stuff. Wow, I too busy!

The following morning started out as any other; the kids woke up, got breakfast, and watched some TV. The only thing that was missing was Gar and Vic's fighting over the food. They then went and worked out a little bit. The only thing different there was that Richard wasn't there to yell at them. While the others put it off, Mari started to get worried.

"Tim, I'm telling you something isn't right. They should be home by now. If not, they would have called," Mari said, pacing the main room.

"Chill, Mari. Maybe they're at their normal houses."

"They would have called," she said again while stopping in front of Tim, who was sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Fine, maybe they're still sleeping. It's been a while since any of them have fought. And they're old too. It probably took a lot out of them," he said dismissively.

"Name one time either of my parents have slept in past noon," she countered. Tim stood up, getting in everyone's way of seeing the TV.

"Mari, calm down. You're just overreacting. Look, there are a number of things that could cause them to not be here now," he said, walking to the kitchen and grabing a bottle of water out of the fridge. "Why don't you get out the White Rock and calm down?!" He tossed her the water bottle. She caught it in the air and opened it.

"Fine." Mari took a drink of it.

"What's the White Rock?" Elle asked. She was sitting with a fashion magazine.

"White Rock is Mari's guitar," Cam said. She was sitting next to Elle with her nose in a gossip magazine.

"Why do you call it White Rock?" Kevin asked while he surfed channel.

"It's white and it rocks," Mari said. "It's an acoustic. I've been trying to get an electric but Dad thinks I'll make too much noise."

"I didn't know you played the guitar," Joey said. He and Claire were sitting in each other's arms.

"That's 'cause I didn't tell anyone. It's just something that I do to calm down."

"Joey can play the guitar too," Elle said without taking her eyes off the magazine.

"Elle!" Joey said, taking his arm off Claire. He looked upset. "I told you never to tell anyone."

"You play the guitar?" Claire asked, turning to look at him.

"Why do you sound all upset about it? Back in Tennessee, a guy that can play the guitar could get any girl he wanted," Ivy said. She seemed to be into whatever was on the TV.

"How come I didn't know you play guitar?" Claire asked again.

"Kevin knew. I thought you knew," Elle said, still not looking up and sounding like she wasn't all that into the conversation.

"Kevin knew and I didn't?" Claire was getting steamed.

"Kevin found out. That's it. I wasn't even going to tell him, he was going to borrow some of my notes and I forgot to put it away. He saw it and just figured it out," he explained.

"Why didn't you tell anyone that you played the guitar?" Ivy asked, looking away from the TV. Joey was just about to say something when a guitar strummed. Everyone turned to see Mari holding a white acoustic guitar and sitting down at the table. She was fidgeting with the pegs.

"Dang it. This thing keeps going flat!" She strummed it again and smiled. "Perfect." Elle, Kevin, Claire, and Ivy got up and went to stand near Mari. Joey walked out of the room but no one noticed

"What do you know?" Kevin asked. He sat down across from her.

"What do you want to hear?" she countered with a smile.

"Can you play 'Walking in Memphis'?" Ivy asked. Right then, Joey came back through the door with a guitar case. He walked over to the table and Kevin scooted over, giving Joey room to sit. He quickly tuned his guitar and looked at Mari.

"What are we playing?" he said with a smirk.

"'Walking in Memphis'. If you think you can keep up with me, that is," she replied. Joey stuck his tongue out and started to play the intro to the song. Mari soon joined in with the harmony.

"'Put on my blue suede shoes as I boarded the plane,'" Ivy started to sing, her voice soft and floating through the air like it had wings. "'Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues in the middle of a pouring rain.'" She turned to Mari and smiled. "W.C. Handy, won't you look down where you lay? 'Cause I've got a first class ticket and I'm blue as a girl can be.'" Claire just kept staring at the boy with the guitar with angry eyes.

"'Then I'm walking in Memphis. Walking with my feet ten feet off the Beale. Walking in Memphis. But do I really feel the way I feel?'"

"'Saw the ghost of Elvis down on Union Avenue,'" Joey started to sing, surprising everyone, including Elle. "'I followed him up to the gates of Graceland watched in walk right through. Now security they did not see him, they just hovered 'round his tomb. There's a pretty little thing, waitin' in the King, down in the Jungle room,'" Joey continued. Mari stared at him, her fingers just automatically playing the cords. She started laughing when he hit the last note.

"'Then I'm walking in Memphis.'" As he sang, Ivy and Elle started to sing the background parts, harmonizing together. "'Walking with my feet ten feet off the Beale. Walking in Memphis. But do I really feel the way I feel?'" Ivy was about to start singing the bridge when Claire jumped in.

"'They've got cat fish on the table. There's a gospel in the air.'" She sounded horrible. Ivy and Elle stopped singing and covered their ears. Cam, who was enjoying the music from the couch, turned around and covered her ears.

"Who is torturing a poor animal over there?" Kevin turned his head so Claire wouldn't see him laughing. Mari and Ivy, on the other hand, weren't as kind. Ivy about fell over laughing with Mari. Elle snickered a little behind her hand while Joey just looked shocked. Cam looked confused. "What? Why are you guys laughing?"

"I don't sound like a tortured animal! Do I, Joey, honey?" Everyone looked at Joey, waiting for his response. Sweat was starting to form on his forehead. Joey looked at everyone for help. Right when he was about to answer, Mari's phone went off.

"Hello?… Oh, hi Pete," she said, sounding depressed. "No, it's good to talk to you too. I'm just expecting a call. … Well, call her on her cell and ask her!… Hold on." She put her hand over the mouthpiece and yelled at Cam. "Did you forget to charge your phone again?" Cam looked at her and then reached for her phone in her pocket and pulled it out, flipping it open in the process. Her eyes widened and she sent Mari an apologetic look. "Sorry, Pete. Turns out she's still a bit forgetful when it comes to her phone. …Yeah, I'll have her call you when she gets her charger out. …'Kay. Talk to you later." She hung up the phone and threw the water bottle cap towards Cam. "He likes you. Call him, or I'll have to go to drastic measures."

"I'll call him. Who are you expecting a call from, though?" Cam asked as she flipped over the couch ungracefully and grabbed the cap.

"I'm hoping that my parents call soon." Mari put her guitar down on the table and stood up.

"Well, that calmness lasted all of one minute," Tim said, walking back to the couch. Cam stood up and walked over to the other teens at the same time as Scott walked through the door for the first time that day.

"Good morning, sunshine. Enjoy sleeping in 'til late in the afternoon?" Ivy teased as Scott walked by. His hair was all disarranged and he was wearing just a plain white t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. He stuck his tongue out as he passed her before he tossed a phone to Tim.

"Your girlfriend was talking my ear off." Scott then went to the fridge and grabbed a can of soda.

"Hey, she's my fiancée first of all. Second, she'll be your mom in a few months, so be nice." Tim said pocketing the phone.

"Where's Shorty?" Scott took a quick drink of soda.

"My sister?" Elle asked. Scott nodded and drank the soda. "She's at daycare right now." Scott just shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the table.

"By the way, if you're so worried 'bout your parents, call them yourself. The phone works two ways, you know." Mari's eyes got big. "Didn't think of that did you?" She got up and went out the door dialing a number into her phone. "So now that Miss Paranoid is taken care of, why aren't you guys worried?"

"Our dad, like, runs a free vet clinic. He gets called in a lot. Sometimes he gets calls in the middle of the night." Joey said. He started strumming the guitar, not really paying attention to what he was playing.

"And my dad has a tendency to have the random need to work on the car. He calls it his 'baby'. I can't say it's weird‒ if I had a car like that, I wouldn't sleep in my bed," Kevin said. Soon Mari walked back through the door. She was still on the phone.

"Hey, it's me. Listen, I just wanted to talk to you about what we were talking about earlier. Call me back ASAP. 'Kay, bye." She hung up the phone and looked at Elle, Joey, and Kevin. "Call your parents, be extremely vague about it. Don't say who you are, who they are, or anything." She walked over to where she had been pacing earlier. The three of them did as they were told, each one of them calling a parent or two.

"They didn't pick up," Elle said, after leaving a voicemail to her mom.

"Same here," Joey said.

"It rang for my mom, but for my dad, it went straight to voice mail. Weird, my dad usually keeps everything charged up completely," Kevin added.

"Your dad has his communicator built into him, right?" Cam asked walking over to the computer in front of the TV. She the turned to Tim. "Do you know where any old communicators are?"

"Yeah. Hold on." Tim got up and left the room.

"I think I could use, like, a radio wave and send it out to my dad and it can tell me if it's hit him or not," Kevin said, taking the computer over from Cam. As he started typing things into the computer, he started to yell. "Dang it! My dad still has a security system on the computer! I can't get on here without five passwords."

Cam pulled her hair up into a loose bun. "Then I guess it's my turn." She pushed him out of the way and started typing on the computer.

"It won't work. My dad designed this to be unable to‒"

"I'm in," Cam said, interrupting his speech with a smile. "Okay, I think your idea was good, but I have a different one." Right then, Tim came in with a yellow communicator.

"Here you go," Tim said, handing it off to Cam. Cam found a cord and plugged one end into the communicator and the other into the computer.

"I'm going to try and triangulate where the last transmission came form. That may be able to give us a general area." She continued to type rigorously on the computer. Soon, a grid map appeared on the TV screen. Cam looked up. "Cool feature." On the grid map was a flashing dot inside a grid. "Okay, I'm trying to zoom in. Does anyone recognize this area?" Joey moved closer to the screen.

"It looks like it's out near Branch Forest over by the cliffs."

"Yeah, that's about as far away as the distress call came from," Kevin said, standing near Cam. She zoomed in more and more until she came to a picture of a meadow in the middle of a forest, and one dot was flashing on the screen. "That dot represents the last transmission. It was sent from one communicator to the other five. It was sent at 10:27 last night."

"Can you see who it was from and what they said?" Mari asked, looking at the screen.

"Nope. It seems that in the middle of the transmission, the communications shut down." She started to type into the computer and looked at Kevin. "My guess is that soon after the communicators went down, your dad was shut down." Kevin looked down, not meeting anyone's eyes. Tim put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry. It's just like he's asleep. He's fine." Kevin kind of smiled before turning back to the computer.

"Your dad has a mechanical eye, right?" Cam asked, still not looking away from the computer screen in front of her.

"I guess. I mean, I haven't really seen him in Cyborg form yet. Why?"

"I think if I can get into his system, I'll be able to see out of his mechanical eye and see what he saw right before he was shut off. That will tell us what we're dealing with and what they can do."

"Well, good luck with that. There may have been only five passwords for you to get around to get the computer to work, but my dad would make it so nobody but him could get into it. You would have an easier time trying to hack into the CIA than my dad's system."

"If they're on the same level, I'll be able to get in there with my eyes blindfolded and arms tied behind my back. If I can hack into the mainframe for the Secret Service at age nine, I think I'll be able to get into your dad's system with ease," she said confidently.

"Wait, you hacked into the Secret Service's main frame at nine?" Ivy said, shocked to just be learning this. "How'd you do it?" Kevin asked.

"Cam can't answer that." Mari said smiling. "Or else she'd break that little contract we signed. I would rather not go to a federal prison at 14, thank you." Elle, Ivy, Joey, and Kevin all started laughing. Tim and Scott chuckled a little.

"I'm in!" Cam cheered over the laughter. Everyone stopped and looked at her. "Alright, a few more seconds and I will have the last thing Vic saw up on the big screen." Just as promised, a few seconds later, the TV showed a picture of a forest.

"Are we ready, team?" a voice said, sounding a lot like Nightwing. The picture moved down to a robotic arm.

"Ready over here, Nightwing," Cyborg responded.

"We are ready up here," Starfire said in her old dialect. Mari had a hard time recognizing her.

"Ready," Changeling said lastly.

"Alright team, move into position." The picture moved again and it soon showed what they could only guess was a spaceship. As they got closer, a bunch of lizard-like things came out of nowhere. They all started to fight with all their might. They saw green animals shifting into each other and green, yellow, and black streaks raining from above, hitting all of the lizard things in their way. Cyborg was hitting them with sonic blasts and fighting off however many he could. Off to the side, they could see Nightwing fighting with some of them hand to hand. As the fight went on, they could see a lizard come up behind Nightwing and hit him with something.

"Guys, Nightwing's down!" Cyborg said into his arm. Soon, a black shield went around Nightwing where he lay on the ground surrounded by lizards. The shield blew up and pushed back everything in its way. Raven soon floated down and protected Nightwing from anything trying to get their hands on him. As she fended them off, more and more lizards surrounded her and hit her with the same thing as Nightwing. She too, fell. "Change, Bee, help Rae and Night!" Cy said into his arm, which was still in communicator mode. A green tiger ran up and started to claw at the aliens trying to come near his wife and friend. Bee flew down and started shooting the weapons out from the aliens' hands. As she flew down lower to help protect the fallen teammates, she was shot with another of the things, which the kids could now see was a staff.

Cy ran up to the monsters to protect his wife unthinkingly until Starfire shouted from the sky. "Do not go! It is a trap!" Cy thought that he was talking to him, but then Changeling quickly ran by in a quick blur. He realized that he was upset and going to save his wife also, not really caring to listen to Star's warning. He soon fell too, joining the pile of fallen teammates. All that was left was Cyborg and Starfire. Starfire was shooting star bolts left and right, hitting everything that she aimed for. Soon the vision pulled away from him doing the same thing.

"Star, we need to hold these guys off so we can ge…." He was interrupted by Starfire screaming. The vision turned to see what had happened, but before it could, the vision went black.

Cam, who was standing directly in front of the screen, looked back at the others. Elle was crying into Joey, who was trying hard not to cry. Kevin had just sat down and stared out into space. Ivy, Scott, and Tim all looked sick and upset, but not as bad as the others. Mari had gotten up at some point and walked over to the counter, turning her back to the screen. Claire just looked confused.

"Anyone know who they are? Those lizard-things?" Cam asked. She looked at Tim, Claire, and Scott mostly.

"Gordanians," Tim said, standing up. Mari stiffened up more, if possible, but didn't turn around.

"So… what are we going to do? Just let our parents be captured by these 'Gordanians' forever?" Elle asked angrily. Her eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks still had tears rolling down them, and Joey had a protective arm around her shoulder while she hugged herself. Everyone looked down, not knowing what to do.

"We fight." Everyone looked up and turned back to see Mari moving from her spot. She walked up to the front of the room where the TV was still covered in static.

"Oh, of course!" Claire said. She stood up from the table and walked over to Mari. "Amateur heroes should go and try to save their parents, who are veteran heroes, from space aliens. Yeah, super plan!" Mari looked up at her.

"You're right; the odds are up against us." Mari looked up and into everyone's eyes. "But our parents have done this before. The only members of the team that were used to fighting were your dad," she looked at Joey and Elle, "and my dad. Your dad," she pointed to Kevin, "was making his sonic cannon in the middle of a big fight with these space lizards. We can fight these things. I know we can."

"How do you suppose we do that, little Miss 'I-Have-All-The-Answers'?" Claire said, sizing up Mari.

"We work as a team, that's how. Unless you have a better idea." Mari said, sizing her up as well. Claire didn't answer. "Oh, so no comeback? Fine. Cam, trace that signal and see if there have been any other signals in that area going in or coming out. Joey, help Elle calm down a little. Kevin, you've been working on some devices right? I need to see what we can all use now. Ivy, help Joey, Elle looks like a mess."

"No I don't," Elle said with a weak smile, her eyes and face still really red. She looked into her reflection in the window. "Yes I do." Everyone smiled and giggled. Everyone except Claire.

"Well, I, for one, am not taking orders from some little, boyfriend-stealing troq." Claire was right in Mari's face. Mari went from surprised to hardened in a nanosecond.

"If that's how you feel, then fine." She turned around and left the room, soon followed by Ivy and Cam. The latter turned and gave a very threatening look to the blond girl. Following them was Tim and Scott, who hopped to catch up with Mari. Elle, who was already upset, just shook her head at her old friend. Kevin did the same, leaving through the door. All that was left was Joey and Claire.

"Come on, Honey, we don't need them." She wrapped her arms around his neck. Joey took her arms off from around his neck.

"How could you say something like that? That was uncalled for. And what do you mean by boyfriend-stealer?"

"I saw her flirting with you last night when the two of you were out by the ocean. You're my boyfriend, not hers. Besides, she thought that she knew way more about your family then you do."

"That's 'cause she was raised on stories of the Titans. She's more familiar with them then any of us are." Joey looked at her and stared right into her eyes.

"Whatever. Now, Joey-woey, what are we going to do?"

"How can you call one of my friends something terrible, and then expect me to listen to you?"

"You're my boyfriend, you're suppose to support me," she retorted, starting to get mad, but not as mad as Joey was. A crack had formed on some of the dishes that had been left in the sink.

"You don't go and call my friends something as bad as that and expect me to support you!" The cracks started to get bigger as Joey started to yell. He then started to walk towards the door.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to see if my friend's okay."

Claire walked up to him and looked right into his face. "If you walk through that door, you and I are through."

Back in Mari's room, Mari sat with her back turned toward the door with Cam on one side and Elle on the other. "It's all right, Sweetie. She's blond; she's supposed to be an idiot," Cam said. She had her arm around her and was stroking her hair. Mari's shoulders jerked up and down.

"That doesn't mean that she can say anything that she wants to anyone," Mari said in a broken, tear-filled voice.

"No, she doesn't," a voice said near the door. Everyone turned around, including Mari, to see Joey standing there. Ivy was the first person to speak.

"Blond idiots aren't allowed in here at this time. Neither are their boyfriends," Scott said, standing next to Mari with a menacing, bouncer stance.

"Well, I'm a blond idiot, and I'm sorry. And, as for that boyfriend part," Joey said, moving in towards the bed.

"Please, tell me you dumped her," Elle said. Joey just smirked a sad smirk and shrugged his shoulders. "Yes!" Elle jumped up and down, making Mari chuckle a little. "And I got her to smile again! Yes!" Everyone chuckled also.

Joey turned to Mari. "I'm sorry about what Claire said to you." Mari turned around the fully to face him.

"It's not you that I want an apology from." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Did you really just break up with her over what just happened?" Joey nodded and looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry. I really am, but she gives blondes a really bad name. Even makes Kitty look nice." Mari muttered that last part, but was heard by everyone in the room. Those who got the irony laughed.

"That's fine." The two of them smiled and turned to Kevin who started to talk.

"That's great, everyone's sorry. We get it, but we have a bigger problem: how are we going to save our parents?" Everyone looked around at one another for the answer.

"I think we should go with Mari's idea," Elle said. She stood up and looked at everyone.

"Yeah, but when are we going to start training? I mean, none of us really know what it's like to fight the Gordanians," Ivy said from Mari's computer chair.

"I'll lead you guys," Tim said, looking at of the teens. "And as for training, we'll start right now."

So, I don't know when I will update again. Sorry, I have a bunch of tests coming up. Also, my showchior is taking a trip to see In The Heights on nov 19th. I can't wait! I could barly keep from jumping out of my chair and doing the Beast Boy dance! So, I can't give you a guess about when I will next update. Review por favor.


	20. Plans and revelations

III'mmm baaaccck! Did you miss me? 'Cause I've miss you all. I'm trying something new with the Spanish in my story, so tell me if you like it or not.

"I'll lead you guys," Tim said, looking at all of the teens, "and as for training, we'll start right now."

"Right now, right now?" Elle asked, confused. "Mari's a little too upset to start training."

Mari turned and looked at Elle smiling. "Is it me you're worried about, or is it you?" She looked at Scott and smirked. "I mean, those of us who were trained by the Batman can be very hard to deal with." Everyone laughed. Mari wiped away the last tear and stood up and looked at her laptop.

"Now first, do you all still want Mari to be in charge of this mission?" Tim looked at each individual face.

Joey stood up and said, "All in favor?" Everyone in the room said "Aye" in reply. Mari turned around smiled.

"Well, that was easy." Mari said. "Okay, here's the plan. Everyone needs to train together starting right now. We need to get used to fighting with each other, not against each other." She looked right at Cam and Elle and smiled. "Cam, I still want you to get on tracing that area for other signals. Joey, Elle, Ivy, I need you guys to work on your powers. We need everything we can utilize to help us. Scott, Tim, I need you guys to help them. Kevin, you and I are going right now. I want to see what you have made."

"I can bring one right now." Kevin ran out of the door and ran down the hall.

Mari turned towards Elle. "What time do you need to pick Lily from the daycare?" she asked. Elle smiled and flipped open her phone.

"Give me a sec to make a call and I won't need to for a while." She walked out of the room dialing the phone.

"Okay. So that's taken care of." Mari was about to turn towards the others when Kevin ran back through the doors holding a skateboard.

"I submit, for your approval, this." He set the skateboard on the ground. Mari looked at him and picked it up. She flipped it over to check out the wheels and trucks.

"Um, thanks Kev, but I have a board already. It's also broken in." She said, while trying to wiggle the trucks.

"Not one like this. Why don't you try a few moves on it?" Kevin said, smiling. Mari looked at him suspiciously, but stood on it and started to jump up with it. As she got used to the board, she jumped up and did a kick flip. When she went to land down on it, she didn't feel the impact of the floor. Instinctively, she looked down and saw that her board was up in the air and that it had changed form from the normal board to a board made of metal that didn't have wheels nor trucks. Mari wobbled a little at first, but quickly regained her balance.

"You're right, I don't have a board like this. How do I control this thing? It wouldn't be very helpful if I just sat here in the air." Kevin laughed and tossed a remote controller that looked like it came from a RC car or toy. Mari caught it, wobbled, and looked at it. "So, how does this work, and will I need to carry this thing around with me while I use this?"

"To the second question, no. I'm still working on it, but when I'm done, you'll just need to think what you want and it will do it for you, but right now, you will need to get used to the settings with the controller. Oh, by the way," he turned to Joey, "I really hope you didn't want that old RC helicopter of yours anymore." Joey's jaw dropped.

"You took my old RC helicopter?!" Kevin was already out of the room chasing his thief of a best friend. Mari smiled, and hopped off the board.

"Cam, I want you to call your mom. Check in, tell her about our mall, talk about how you're mad that I never burn while you're the only Mexican who does. Show her that you're all right and everything's cool." Cam smiled and pulled out her phone.

"I can do that and run through the signals. It will be a piece of cake and won't need to pay much attention so she won't notice my lack of attention." Cam started to walk out of the room before she turned around and looked at Mari. "Hey, can I borrow your laptop? It will help to be working from a format that I already know by heart." Mari went over to the desk and unplugged the laptop before handing it to her.

"Be careful," Mari warned. "I don't need my dad, my grandfather, or the press somehow finding out that someone just hacked into something illegal from my laptop." Cam just smiled and left the room. Mari turned to Scott and Ivy. "I need you two to find Joey and Kevin and start training. When Elle is done, she is to join you. I need you guys to start as soon as possible." Scott clicked his heels together and stood at attention.

"Yes, Master General, Sir." Scott saluted off and started to march out of the room. Ivy rolled her eyes.

"Do I have to work with him? Can't I help Cam?" Mari put a supporting hand on her shoulder.

"No. Now, the faster you find everyone, the faster you won't be alone." Ivy started muttering in Hebrew as she walked out. Mari turned and looked at Tim with a tired smile.

"Well Chief, what are my orders?" Tim joked. Mari looked at him and just hugged him tight. At first, he was shocked at this, until he felt her start to shake and cry onto his shirt. "Okay, so I won't call you chief again then. What's wrong, Squirt?"

"What if I can't do this? What if, instead of leading them to get our parents back, they all get captured or worse? What if something else goes wrong and someone gets hurt? What if…" Tim looked down put a hand over her mouth.

"Okay, that's enough." He had her sit down on her bed and sat down next to her. "Stop beating yourself down. The Mari we know never thought down on herself. You are going to do great."

"How do you know that? I'm just telling people what to do, but how will I know what good it will do?" Tim pushed back some of Mari's hair that had some how fallen onto her face.

"You just have to trust your instincts, and use the smarts and common sense that you are fortunate your mom, dad, Bruce and I gave you. Now, let's go and train with the others." Tim got up from the bed and lent a hand to Mari.

"Nah. I'm going to keep Cam company and see if I can help with anything. When you see Kevin, see if he can get some stuff together for me. Unlike the others, I'm useless. Well, maybe not as useless as you." Mari said, laughing. Tim gave her a look and ruffled her hair.

"Check in in about three hours?" Tim asked, opening the door for her.

"Unless we find something. If you need me, I have my cell." And with that, Mari started walking one way and Tim went another.

"That chick is too much like her father for her own good."

"_No Mamá, todo va fino aquí. Mari's la casa no es tan grande como su lugar viejo, pero pienso que ella lo quiere aquí_." (No, Mom, everything's going fine here. Mari's house is not as big as her old place, but I think she likes it here.) Cam was sitting on a chair in front of one of the multiple computer screens. She had moved a small table and had Mari's laptop plugged in and had her feet propped up on the table next to it. Mari walked in the door and sat down on a chair next to here. "_Oye Mamá, dice hola a Mari._" (Hey Mom, say hi to Mari.) Cam held the phone up to Mari.

"_Hola Sra. Rodriguez. …Sí, tomo el cuidado bueno de nuestras chicas. …Seguro, hará . …Bien, yo le entregaré atrás a su hija. Vea ya la Sra. Rodriguez._" (Hi Ms. Rodriguez. …Yes I'm taking good care of our girls. … Sure, will do. …Well, I think I'm going to hand you back to your daughter) With that, Mari handed the phone back to Cam.

"_Vea, soy bien._" (See, I'm all right.) She looked at the computer screen in front of her and the one on Mari's laptop. Mari looked over at her and saw that her eyes had grown and she looked upset. "_Sí, yo le llamaré más tarde. Adiós Mamá._" (Yeah, I'll call you later. Bye Mom.) With that, Cam hung up the phone and started typing into the computer. "This isn't good." Mari moved to look at the screen better.

"What is it?" Cam just shook her head kept typing.

"How do you feel about hacking into the Justice League?" Cam asked after a few seconds of typing. With that Mari, picked up her cell phone and called Tim.

It took a few minutes for Tim to get into the room, but when he did, he was a little short of breath. "What is it? What's wrong?" He walked up to where the two girls were sitting. Cam continued to type and look at the screen.

"So, I checked with NASA and tried to see if anything flew in or near our atmosphere sometime in the last month or so. Turns out that there wasn't just one, but two objects that flew into the atmosphere. The reason they didn't look into it was because they both stopped near the Justice League's Space Center before coming into the atmosphere." Cam looked up at Tim and Mari. "We need to know who these things are. NASA doesn't get any records of anything at stops with the JL because of a request they made many years ago. If it is the Gordanians, and they got close to the space center, maybe they got a picture of them or could identify them for us."

"Great, but why do you need me?" Tim asked, looking confused.

"No one has access to the JL mainframe but members of the JL or former members," Mari said, looking at Tim. Tim got what that meant.

"You want me to call your grandfather and ask him if he can get Cam clearance to the mainframe?" Tim looked at Mari.

"You owe me a life time of favors, remember," Mari said with a smile. Tim rolled his eyes and reached for his phone.

"You are a mean, manipulative little child. Where did you get this spirit from?" He said, stalling for time.

"My uncle. Now call him!" So with that, Tim left the room to call Bruce.

"Can you believe that this is happening to us?" Cam said as she typed, looking at the computer and not Mari, who had her head in her hands. Mari looked up and smiled at Cam.

"I know. Did you think last month that we would be trying to get access to the JL's mainframe to save my parents from a bunch of evil space lizards?" Mari asked, smiling.

"Last month? Try last week. Last month my biggest worry was that you would forget about me and Ivy." Cam stopped typing suddenly. "You know this is going to change everything for us, right?" Mari smiled at her friend.

"Haven't things always been hard for us? I mean, while you were playing dress up, I was at parties in dresses that cost more than your house. While you trying to learn how to speak English, I was talking to dignitaries with a major lisp. And that was just in Pre-K. When we got into high school, we became so different, it wasn't even funny for some people. But if we can handle that, then I think we can handle being superheroes." Soon after the little inspirational speech, Tim came in, still on the phone.

"I have good news and bad news. Tim said to them. "Bruce can give you entire access to their computer." Mari jumped up.

"That's great! What's the bad news? They don't have to kill her, do they?" Through the phone, they could hear Bruce laugh.

"No. The bad news is that Scott and I have to head back out to Gotham tonight at seven." Mari looked at the clock on her laptop that read five forty-eight.

"Give me the phone," Mari said, holding out her hand. Tim handed her the phone and stood next to Cam to give her the instructions to get on. Mari walked out of the room and talked to her grandfather.

"Grandpa, you can't take Tim and Scott away right now."

"And why not?" He said back sternly.

"I need them to help me get my team ready. Please Grandpa. I can send him out later tomorrow if you want. Please." Mari's voice squeaked a little with the sound of tears. She knew that he couldn't say no to her when she cried.

"No." Mari nearly dropped the phone. "Mari, Terry needs help from Scott and Tim. I'm really sorry, but that's my final word on this matter." He hung up the phone, leaving Mari looking shocked. She was just about to shout when Elle, Joey, Kevin, Ivy, and Scott all walked up. They were all huffing and sweating hard.

"Hey Mari. What's up?" Elle asked, trying to catch her breath. Mari just turned back around and walked through the door, followed by the others up to Cam and Tim. She pointed to Tim.

"You're under my leadership now, not Grandpa's. So that means you guys aren't leaving 'til tomorrow." Everyone looked at Mari and saw that she was angry. "Kevin, did you get anything?"

Kevin shook his head. "I got some ideas, but I couldn't get you anything new. You'll have to settle with some of your dad's old things. I also found us some old communicators and brought them back from the dead so we can use them."

"Okay. How was your guys' training session?" She looked right at Scott.

"These guys are a bunch of babies."

"He was trying to kill us!" Ivy said. She shot Scott an evil look.

"Well," Cam said from in front of her computer, "I have something that may make everyone happy." Everyone walked up to Cam and Tim. "I have just hacked into a computer on the Gordanians' ship. It was only a maintenance computer, but it gave me a layout of the ship and access to their cameras." Everyone cheered, even Scott.

"How did you do that?" Joey asked, looking at the computer genius.

"Well, after I could use the JL's database, I was able to find the ship. When I knew what I was looking for, I was able to get onto NASA and use their satellites to try and get an image on where this thing is. It was at the exact place where I traced our parents' communicators to. And, well, the rest of the things I did would probably make your heads explode." She said, smiling before pulling up an image of the ship sitting in the middle of a forest.

"Okay, now we need to come up with a plan. Cam, can you bring up the layout up on the big screen?" Mari asked, walking up.

"Hey, before this gets any farther, I have to pick up Lily," Elle said, stepping forward.

"Okay, go get her and bring her back here. I'll fill you in later." Elle replied with a quick "thanks" and left the room. When she turned around, Cam had the layout of a spaceship up on the big screen next to the satellite image.

"Well, first thing we need to do is find our parents and free them," Mari said, looking at the schematics.

"Where do you think they're at?" Kevin said, looking at the computer that had the same image on it.

"Well, we have a problem with that; we will need to get over first." Cam said. She brought up a camera image that showed multiple Gordanians walking around the outside the ship. Then it was flipped to show more Gordanians walking through all of the hallways. "They have guards everywhere." Mari looked at the screen. She soon smiled and looked at Cam.

"If only we had someone who could change the her appearance into anyone, or anything, to help us pass through the guards." Everyone caught on and looked at Cam.

"What? Oh no. I'm not going in there by myself. No way, _chica_." Mari walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You won't, because Elle and Kevin will be in their teeny tiniest selves, flying right next to you where no one can see them." Mari looked over her shoulder at Kevin who was backing away slowly. "What, you guys are going to have to fly in and dismantle the cameras so Joey, Ivy, and I can come in and save our parents and get out." Now it was everyone else's turn be scared.

"Not going to work." Cam said, turning around from the computer. "One of the main reasons that I couldn't get into their main computers was because they have a different alphabet than we do, and to dismantle the cameras, we need to get in there and set a new video so they don't get suspicious." Cam turned back to the computers. "And to do this, you would need to get a code of the written language and well, Chica, if you don't know the language, it's complicated." Mari looked at the computer screen with the map.

"Can you bring up the prison area?" Tim asked, moving up to stand next to Mari. Cam clicked and typed on the laptop, making a floor blow up to many times its size as a dot appeared over one room.

"Is that the only one they have on their ship?" she asked.

Cam nodded. "Yeah. By the looks of the schematics, it's a small one too." Tim looked over at Mari. She had a small smirk forming on her face.

"Do you have a plan?" Mari's smirk just grew. Right then, Elle walked in through the door. She had Lily in one arm, a small book bag on her back and a box of pizza. Everyone just looked at her. She put the pizza box on the counter and Lily and her book bag at the table.

"Whatever the plan is, we have to figure something out first: what are we going to do with Lily? I'm not leaving her here alone." Mari looked at Elle, then Lily. Without saying a thing, she walked out of the room and down the hall to Elle's room where Claire was packing up her things.

"Look," Mari said as she walked through the door. "You hate me and I don't like you. But you and Elle used to be friends. I'm not asking for a favor, Elle is. We need someone that Lily likes and knows to watch her while we're gone tomorrow." Claire threw down her clothes into her suitcase.

"Well, why wasn't I asked to help?" She walked over and stood in front of her.

"Because I don't want anyone to get hurt trying to go on their own and be a hero. And I mean no offense, but I don't trust you, though Elle trusts you with her sister. That is one of the things you should be happy about; that you have that trust. If you want to help with the mission, then this is one of the most important things you can do." Mari looked up to Claire in her eyes.

"Yeah. Whatever." Claire said, turning back to her and back to her packing.

"Thank you." She heard behind her. When she turned around, no one was there.

"Everything's taken care of," Mari said as she walked into the main room. "I also have more good news." Everyone looked at Mari. "I have a plan. And here's what we're going to do." With that, the plan was laid out for the next day. **(Good place for a page break.)**

Mari was sitting in her room at her desk. She had her laptop back and had a file open on her desk. The only light in the room was coming from a desk lamp. She had her hair down and had regular glasses on her face instead of sunglasses. She was holding her head in her hands when someone knocked on her door.

"Who is it?" She asked through her hands.

"Your favorite person in the world," Tim said from the other side of the door.

"Ryan, what are you doing here in Jump?" Mari said jokingly.

"Ha ha. Really funny," Tim replied back.

"The door's open." The door opened to show Tim with his suitcase at his side. He turned on the lights in the room with a flip of the switch. Inside, Titan was laying on Mari's bed, watching everything going on.

"Leaving so soon? I thought that you were going to stay 'til tomorrow." She looked up from the desk.

"Well, when Scott and I weren't back in Gotham, Bruce called me and had a field day. I forgot how many big words Bruce knew. He wants us to be home first thing in the morning." Mari got up and hugged her uncle. "You're going to do just fine, Squirt," he said, hugging back. "When you get back, I expect a call with the play-by-play." He said, walking over to Mari's computer chair and sitting down. "Do you have everything ready for tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I have my clothes together and Kev got me one of Dad's old belts with a bunch of his stuff."

"Got protection?" Tim asked. He raised an eyebrow.

"What?!" Mari was thinking one thing and hoping that he meant something else.

"Do you have a mask or something to protect your identity? I promise that there is not a pair of sunglasses in the world that will stay on your face when you fight." He stood up and walked to Mari's closet. "Get you mind out of the gutter, girl," he added with a laugh. He opened the closet and started to look at the top shelf. He started to feel around the shelf to find something. "He said that he had this thing still in the back here." He pulled his hand out with something in it. He opened it to reveal a small pair of robin earrings. "I really hope that these aren't your dad's." He threw the earrings in the trash can next to Mari's desk before he put his arm back in the shelf to find something. He pulled something out again. This time, he had something bigger in his hand. He turned around and looked at Mari.

"You know, you've always had a problem with personal space," Mari said with her arms crossed in front of her.

"This is very important." Tim opened his hand and inside was an old mask. The mask was ripped, torn, and faded.

"You know, I can find a mask like this all over the room."

"This is a special mask, now pay attention," Tim said.

"This the first mask that every Robin has ever used. He came down to Gotham to let me use this on my first night out. Then he took it back and I used a bunch of new ones. Then, we gave it to Scott on his first night. Now, I'm presenting you with this. May it remind you that you're not alone in anything that happens to you. Chances are that your parents, the other adults here in the tower, Bruce, and I have gone through it or something like it." Mari touched the mask. She didn't know that she was crying until Tim touched her shoulder and smiled. "Believe in yourself and everything's going to be okay. Now, go to sleep. You've gotta get some sleep." He walked over and turned off her desk light, shut her laptop, and closed the case file. "You have a very tiring day tomorrow ." She walked over to the bed and got in under the covers, right where Titan was sleeping.

"G'night Tim. Take care of my little bro when you get back out there."

"I will." He walked over to the door and grabbed his suitcase. He looked back at Mari. She had pretty much fallen asleep the second she hit the pillow. She had both pairs of glasses, sunglasses and reading glasses on a nightstand next to a framed picture of a boy with a girl on his shoulders. In her arms was a small stuffed bunny rabbit, faded and tearing from years of sleep and snuggling. He turned off the light. "Yeah, she's going to do fine. Too much like her dad, but fine."

So, there you go. I hope you enjoyed it. After this, I think there will be only, like, 4 or 5 chapters left. I have a poll on my account, so please go and see it and vote. Also, I promise that I will update faster than this time. So, now, I bid you adu. Please Review. All constructive criticism will be used in making all of my stories better for you, my readers. Thank you. (This was a message paid for by readers for TAUT. Remember, always review responsibly.)


	21. Intruder Alert

See, I told you that it wouldn't be long before I updated again. This chapter is really short. It's an introduction to the next set of chapters.

The sun started to set in the forest outside of Jump City. On a normal night, animals would be running around, getting ready for the night. But not tonight. Tonight, the animals were hiding away from the new creatures of the forest. Inside of a clearing was a giant orange spaceship. Two big, green, Gordanian guards were patrolling the outside of the clearing between the trees.

"I wish we could leave this wretched planet soon. The smell from the humans are horrible," one of them said. When he stepped on a bush, a family of foxes ran out. The guard that had just finished talking aimed his gun at the foxes.

"Don't waste your ammo on these worthless creatures. Besides, the leader said that that we will be leaving soon." The two of them continued to walk until something started to rustle in a bush. The two of them just looked at each other. "When we leave this planet, we can destroy it all and the pathetic animals." They moved closer to the bush. When nothing came out, they both looked at each other. Without making a sound, the two of them grabbed their guns and poked into the bush. Right when they were about to fire, something grabbed their guns and shoved away and toward their heads.

"What the--" The two of them started to fire into the bush. Before the shots started to tear through the bush, a figure jumped out of the bush and through the air. As it flew through the sky, the Gordanians shot after it. When it landed, the attacker turned around and started to fight with them. As it fought with the Gordanians, the intruder kicked the guns out of their hands. The figure soon reached for it's belt and pulled out a retractable staff. As the figure was fighting with one of the Gordanians, the second one called in some back up. As the figure kept fighting, two Gordanians came up behind her and grabbed both of her arms.

"Hey!" The figure shouted. The voice sounded like a teenage girl. The girl struggled as she was pulled into the spaceship. "Let me go!" She was shouting over and over again. As they walked through the spaceship, the intruder kicked a Gordanian passing by. The Gordanian stopped walking, turned around, and grabbed the girls collar while growling. It lifted up a fist like it was going to hit her when another one grabbed its arm.

"Don't worry about this one. We'll send it to the cage. Then, if she keeps acting up, we will send it to the leader for her to deal with." The angry one let go of her shirt. After that, the one she was fighting with earlier slapped special handcuffs that went over her forearms. There was a second part that covered her hands, so she couldn't even use them. The Gordanians started to escort the girl somewhere when she slammed her body into the Gordaian that tried to punch her.

"Oops," she said angrily. The Gordanian grabbed the part that covered her hands and yanked her hard so they were face-to-face. The Gordanian almost punched once more until one another Gordanian grabbed and dragged him away.

"That's what the leader doesn't understand; we get cooped up for too long and we start to get too angry." The others nodded in agreement and took away the angry Gordanian while the two from the outside escorted the intruder to the holding area.

When they got down into the basement of the spaceship, they came up to an area with what looked like an electric wall around it. When they got closer, the girl could see inside. Inside was a group of adults, all doing different things. When they started to pull her into the room, she started to kick and fight back.

"Let me go!" she kept shouting. She continued to fight and kick until they threw her into the room with the adults. Her hair flew over her face when she hit the floor.

"You have a lot of guts, Kid." The girl looked up. For the first time, her face was completely visible. She had a mask on her face.

"My name's not Kid. It's Nightfire."

Yep. Short. I can't promise that the next chapter will be up as fast as this one. The next ones will be longer. Review please. Thank you.


	22. Jail Break

This was suppose to be a birthday present for my lovely editor Toph, but she didn't edit it till this week. Well, HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY TOPH!!!! So, here's my new chapter! BTW, before I forget, the handcuffs they are all in is the same ones that Starfire was wearing in "Go!". So when I'm talking about how her hands are free, be she can't reach something, her hands are freed like Starfire's when she started to blow everything up. Thought that would help you when reading this.

The adults in the prison cell looked at the young girl with black hair. Her hair was down and wavy over her face and eyes. Over her eyes was a mask. She was wearing a red tank top under a black leather jacket and hard washed blue jeans. She was still in the spot on the ground where she had been thrown. Her handcuffs were looked down at her angrily, but Nightfire looked up and smiled.

"Hey, Dad. How's it goin'?" She started to stand up. When she was on her feet, Nightwing stood right in front of her, his hands in handcuffs as well.

"I am very disappointed in you, young lady," he reprimanded. Nightfire just moved her hair out of her face. "I told you to stay out of this."

"I know," she replied. She pushed her hands,causing the large metal strip over her hands to fall onto the ground. Everyone just looked at her. "And you can thank me later." She started to move her neck, moving the collar of her shirt. Under the collar was a chain. Unfortunately, the chain was hard to grab without her hands. As she was trying to get the chain, she looked around at the adults. Bumblebee was sitting on the bench next to a turned-off Cyborg with the same handcuffs on. On the other side of her was Changeling and Raven. They both had on handcuffs, but Raven had a plate over her mouth. Changeling had a collar on as well.

Nightfire finally grabbed the chain with her mouth and pulled up. Soon, the chain came up and a something like a key came up. "Dad," she mumbled with the chain in her mouth, "can you grab this?" He looked down at his handcuffs.

"Didn't think about that, did you?" He said a little smugly and angrily. Nightfire rolled her eyes. With her freed hands, she grabbed his metal bar and pulled hard. The bar came out and fell to the floor.

"There, now grab," she said with the chain still in her mouth. With his now free hands, he grabbed the chain and lifted it over her head.

"Now what?" he asked. She snatched the key out of his hand.

"I have a plan. Now hold out your hands," she said. He did what he was told to do.

"Mariand'r, why are you doing this?" Nightfire looked at her dad for a second and went back to what she was working on. "I'm trying to save you guys since you got captured. By the way, don't tell me that you're going to be home in a few hours when you know that you may not be." She continued to work with the key and the handcuffs.

"Well, you didn't do a good job planning. You're in the same ship as we are," he said sternly. Then there was a click from the handcuffs.

"Nah, I think I planned this a little better," she said with a smile. Changeling laughed a little.

"Dude, that's definitely your daughter."

"Now help me with mine," she continued. She held out her hands and handed him the key to unlock her.

Nightfire looked around and noticed that there was someone missing from the room. "Dad?" Nightwing looked up and then back down at the lock.

"Yeah?"

"Where's Mom?" The lock clicked.

"They took her somewhere else. I didn't get the chance to see where." He looked up at her and saw the pain in her face. "We'll find her though. Don't worry." Nightfire smiled as her handcuffs came off.

Right when the handcuffs came off, they heard someone coming. Nightwing and Nightfire looked at each other and grabbed the handcuffs and sat down, making it look like they still had handcuffs on. A Gordanian walked up and stood with its hands on its hips.

"Hurry up, Night," the Gordanian said. The voice didn't sound like an alien, but a teenage Hispanic girl. "We need to get going now. These things are starting to get suspicious of me," it continued. Nightfire sighed in relief and stood up, letting her handcuffs fall.

"I'm going as fast as I can," Nightfire replied. She looked around to see the adults both scared and confused. "Cam, I think it would be a good idea if you changed back right now." The Gordanian laughed. Then, it quickly changed into a girl. The girl had dark brown hair with light hazel eyes. "Now why did you pick that way to look? You look ridiculous, Cam," Mari said. Everyone looked at the girl.

"It's not like you look any better yourself. _Hola_, Mr. N." she added with a wave. The adults looked at her.

"Cam?" Bumblebee said, looking confused.

"Yeah, short for Chameleon. Easy, huh?" As she smiled. Nightfire just rolled her eyes and walked over to Raven.

"Sorry if this hurts a little," she apologized in advance. She messed with the lock on her mouth while Nightwing looked at Cam.

"Did she talk you into this?" he demanded. She shook her head, her hair changing colors into a bright yellow.

"Nope. In fact, we voted her leader unanimously," she affirmed. They turned when they heard the clink of a restraint coming off. Raven took in a deep breath.

"Thanks. Now who's we?" she asked. Nightfire continued to work on the handcuffs of the others sitting down. To show who voted, a bunch of people showed up next to Cam. One girl had black hair with green and purple streaks running through it. She grew up from a small fly. She was wearing a Purple tank-top and jean capris. She had a belt around her waist that was slanted to one side. A boy next to her appeared. He too seemed to have just grown from a fly shape. He was African American with his hair cut really short so there was barely anything there. He was wearing a pair of baggy cargo pants and a black plain t shirt. The next teen to appear was a boy with pale skin and blond hair, which he moved away from his eyes to reveal them as dark purple. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a purple shirt. Holding onto his arm with her eyes closed was a girl with red hair. She was wearing a brown shirt and brown tights under a black skirt. She looked up and opened her eyes.

"Are we done?" she said. The blonde boy nodded. She looked around to see the Titans looking at them angrily. Nightfire just rolled her eyes and continued to unlock the other handcuffs.

"Dad, do me a favor and try to get Cy up," she said as she moved over to Bee. "Cam, did you get that key?"

"See, about that…" Cam began, but she trailed off. Nightfire stopped and looked up at her.

"If it's bad news, I don't want to hear it. You had better have that key or I'm personally gonna get you." Cam started to move behind the blond kid.

"Shadow, keep the angry lady away from me." The blonde kid lifted his eyebrows up.

"You're on your own. You were supposed to get the keys," he said as Nightfire continued to work on the locks. The black kid pulled two big metal things out of his large cargo pockets. They looked like giant B's.

"I could probably blast the shield," he offered. Night stopped what she was doing and turned around.

"Wasp, don't even think--" She didn't get the chance to finish her thought. Wasp blasted the shield with a large blast of electricity from the B's. He was actually doing well, with part of the shield around the room disintegrating away where he was zapping it. All of a sudden, the electricity went backwards and shocked him. He instantly dropped the B's and began to shake. Everyone ran to him or as close to him as they could. Bumblebee had to be held back by Nightfire to keep her from trying to get through the shield.

"You stupid idiot!" she started shouting at him. "Did you think I hadn't thought about that? You could've gotten killed!" Bumblebee kicked one of the handcuffs into the shield. Nightfire watched as the cuffs burned in the shield. She saw as a bug flew into the room in a small area around the handcuffs before they burned out. The fly tried to fly back out, but was zapped like a giant bug zapper. Night looked back to the handcuffs and then over to the bench where the adults were sitting.

"Watch out," she said. Everyone just stared at her. She let go of Bumblebee and walked over to the bench.

"What are you 'bout to do?" The red head asked. Night soon kicked the bench with the ball of her heel and broke the bench. Picking up the smaller piece, she looked at the red head.

"I'm about to try to figure something out, Iris. Now step back." Before anyone could question her, Night threw the piece of wood in her hand and hit the middle of the shield. The shield died down for a second, while the wood was burning. Everyone stared. Night smiled. "Iris, can you make plants grow from anywhere?"

"Umm, sure, I guess. I haven't really tried it through concrete though," she responded. Nightfire turned to Raven and the blond kid. "If Iris can get something to burn through the shield, can you use your powers to keep the shield open so we can get through?"

Raven turned towards the blond kid. "Shadow, are you up to it?" Shadow nodded. "We're in."

"Iris, when I say so, I want you to get some kind of plant growing. I don't care what kind, but keep them growing no matter what." She turned to Raven and Shadow. "Use your powers to try and help spread open the hole in the shield." She looked at all three of them. "But if you start getting shocked, stand down. I don't anyone getting hurt like Smart One over there." She smiled to Wasp. Everyone nodded. "Ready?" Night asked Iris.

Iris took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Ready."

Shadow and Raven both took a stance to help keep their balance. "Ready," Raven said. Shadow nodded in agreement.

"Now." Iris threw her hands out towards the shield. Dust started to come out of her fingers and landed on the ground next to the shield. Soon, vines began to grow into it. As soon as they were appearing, they were being burned and replaced with new vines. Nightwing leaned over to Nightfire.

"I thought that it was just a coincidence that she had the same last name as Poison Ivy, but now that I see it, I believe it," he said. Nightfire just smiled as Raven and Shadow started to push open the shield. 'Not a good plan my butt.' Night thought with a smirk. She looked over at the shield. Little holes were growing into bigger holes. Soon, there was almost a hole big enough for them to walk through. Nightfire quickly pulled her hair back with a ponytail holder on her wrist. When the hole was big enough, everyone quickly ran through. When everyone was through, Shadow and Iris nearly fell to the floor, drained.

"Good job, you guys." Night said. Ani took off the belt she was wearing and handed it to Nightfire. Right when she clicked the belt on, a few Gordanians walked into the hallway.

"Great," Ani said right before the Gordanians started firing at them. Nightwing turned towards Nightfire.

"What's your plan now?"

"Don't get hit," she said as they started to advance on all of them. She pulled out a small silver tube. She pressed a button on the tube and it expanded as she spun it above her head and hit a Gordanian nearby. The others took that as a signal to start fighting. Ani and Wasp were turning small and attacking from behind. Iris started to make vines grow out of the walls and grabbed the Gordanians' arms and legs, giving Nightwing and Nightfire the chance to hit them. Raven and Bumblebee were shooting at anyone that got close to the loading Cyborg. Changeling was changing fast, watching the girls' backs. In the middle of the fight, Nightfire and Nightwing noticed that most of the Gordanians were guarding a door to their right.

"Night!" Nightwing yelled over the noise as they fought side by side. Nightwing scissor kicked out a Gordanian's legs as Nightfire grabbed the falling alien and threw him into the two other Gordanians that were heading over to Iris and Shadow.

"Yeah?" She grabbed Nightwing's arm, pulled him up, and started to fight again.

The two of them were back to back when he whispered to her. "Get your team to that door. Change and I will cause a distraction for you guys to go." A Gordanian came up to Nightfire. She was about to take a swing when something grabbed its back and tried to bring it down. Nightfire took a few punches and helped bring it down. Cam soon materialized in front of the Nights.

"I can let the others know the plan if you want, Sweetie."

"Get it done fast. Do you remember the old code word?" Cam nodded and disappeared as a Gordanian can running up behind her. Nightwing was about to step in and fight when the Gordanian was knocked down. Nightfire smiled at her father.

"An old soccer move we know. Cam couldn't help showing off, even if she's invisible," she explained. The two of them went back to the fight, and Cam soon reappeared.

"Ready when you are, Boss," she said. Nightfire nodded and looked to her dad.

"We only have one shot at this, so you have to get through that door quickly and we'll follow behind the best that we can. Be prepared. We don't know what's on the other side." Nightfire nodded to her father then turned to Cam.

"Ready?" she asked. Cam nodded before turning herself and Nightfire invisible. Nightwing went back to fighting until he heard some Gordanians shouting and fighting from the door. One was trying to ram its back into a wall and another was swatting all around its body and trying to get something when both of them were knocked down, Nightfire's voice yelled the code word through the fight. "Camp!" Everyone dispersed in different ways. The adults started fighting harder, with Cyborg almost completely charged, and the kids ran towards the door, fighting their way through. Nightfire stood at the door and held it open as Shadow, Wasp, Iris, and Animal ran through. When they all got through, they were standing in a control room. There were many Gordanians standing around. Up on a second level were two women; one was standing up and pacing, talking and the second one was knelt down with her hair over her face. The one walking had dark black hair while the other one had red hair. Nightfire was stuck staring at the two of them until Shadow grabbed her and pulled her down where everyone was hiding.

"We need to get up there and rescue that woman," Iris whispered and pointed the woman kneeling down.

"I'll go."  
Everyone turned towards Nightfire. "I think I can get up there, cut her free, and take down the other one faster than anyone."

"Yeah, but how will you get up there without anyone noticing you?" Cam said to her angrily. "Sweetie, to make you invisible, I have to concentrate on only you. I don't think that it'll be safe with me not paying attention."

Night nodded. "Fine, here's what we'll do: you go and free her and I'll make a distraction big enough for you to get in, free the woman, and get down as fast as you can." Cam nodded as Night turned towards the others. "I want you to stay here. If you see anything wrong, get out the back way. You saw where it was on the map." She turned towards Shadow. "If something happens, make sure that Cam and that lady get out safe." Night nodded towards Cam and they walked to the back staircase where one alien was standing guard at its base. Working quickly and quietly, Night took it out in a matter of a few seconds. Cam started to go up the stairs before Night stopped her. "This will help cut her loose or free her. Do you remember what I taught you years ago?" she asked. Cam nodded and flipped open the little pocket knife that was handed to her.

"What, planning to shank some aliens while we were here?" Cam teased. Night just shook her head and walked over to an opening in the front area.

"Hey, you stupid, ugly aliens! You want the girl who's been making you look like a fool? I'm right here."

The black-haired woman turned and looked down with an evil smile. She had dark purple eyes and the same skin tone that Night shared with her mother.

"Well, by the looks of the mask and the skin, I see that my pathetic sister married that loser human. Well, if you're trying to foil my plans, why don't you come up here and meet your aunt."

So, I really don't have anything to say tonight. I've been doing tech week for my school musical. (EVERYBODY CUT FOOTLOOSE!) My character's name is Urleen… pray for me. Anyways, I thought in honor of my editor's birthday, I would put up something she added to the end of my edited chapter. All of this is crack and will not happen. Or will it? DUN DUN DUNNNNN! Enjoy!

_**Next time, on **_**The Apple….**

**Nightfire: You're the one I truly love…. Titan.**

**Titan: *wags tail***

***scene change***

**Raven: How could you do this to our family?!**

**Changeling: But I **_**really wanted that moped….**_

***scene change***

**Shadow: Xavier Redd…. the object of my rivalry…. and also the object of my affection….**

***scene change***

**Random Gordanian: I'm pregnant…. with your baby.**

**Nightwing: WHAT.**


	23. Familiy Reunion

Nightfire was about to move when two Gordanians appeared on either side of her and grabbed her arms, hard. They moved her over to the stairs and carried her up. She kicked and screamed all the way until she was placed in front of the older woman. The Gordanians stepped back.

"Do you know who I am?" the older woman asked. Nightfire looked down, not meeting her eyes.

"You're Blackfire. My mom's older sister." Night then looked up and smiled. "You know, with all of the stories I've been told, I thought that you'd be a lot prettier." Blackfire grabbed Night's shirt by the collar and lifted her up.

"You'd be wise, small one, to watch what you say. I've been known for having a short temper," she threatened as her eyes began to glow purple.

"'Kay, sorry, touchy subject," Night said with a cocky, lopsided grin. "Let's try a new one; why are you here?" Blackfire let out a laugh.

"So much like your father. You want to know? Fine." She nodded to the Gordanians, who grabbed Night again. "I'm here to get my revenge on that bratty little sister of mine," she said as she let go of Night's collar. "I was just about to get rid of her when you showed up and stopped me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to finish what I started." She turned around to look at where the other woman had been sitting earlier when she found that no one was there. She turned back to see Night smirking again. "You little… Fine, I'll get rid of you then." She blasted Night right in the chest with a star bolt. Night fell off the edge. Blackfire started to laugh. "Her mother is somewhere close. When you hear someone crying, then you found her." Blackfire started to walk away from the edge with the Gordanians. "Get the other prisoners in here. And make sure they are properly detained."

"Hey, I wasn't done talking with you!" they heard from the edge. They all turned around and saw Night, floating in the air.

"So you can fly. Interesting to know." Blackfire floated back over to where Night was floating. "Now, how did you survive that blast?" Night just smirked.

"That's for me to know and you to never find out." Blackfire lunged out at her. The two of them started to fight when Blackfire shot a star blot at Night's feet. This caused a silver board to appear under her feet.

"It figures that you can't fly by yourself," Blackfire said as she fired volley after volley of star bolts at Night. "Why? Because you where born unable to fly too?" Nightfire said as she flew towards the platform again. She was about to get close when one of Blackfire's shots hit her board and caused her to fly off it. Night skidded onto the platform and hit the wall. Blackfire flew up to her and landed right in front of her face.

"You are a little pest, you know that?" She was about to blast Night when a vine appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her wrist. "What the…" She looked down over the platform where Iris was standing out in the open. "So you brought a little friend with you. Well she'll just have to go down with you," Blackfire said as she tore through the vine, turned and shot a star bolt at Iris. As it got closer, Iris tried to back up but fell down. When it was about a foot away from her, it hit a shield. "What?" Soon, Shadow and Wasp appeared next to Iris. "Aww, look at this. You have a little team." Night was struggling to get up. "And let me guess, you're their leader." She started to laugh. "And you've just lead them to their deaths." She floated back over to Night. "And I'll start with you." Right before she fired a star bolt at Nightfire, the door to the room exploded. In came in Nightwing and the others. Night smirked up at her aunt.

"Oh, did I forget to tell you that I let them go before I ran into you? My bad," Night said and started to sit up.

"Why you little brat..." She was about to fire a star bolt when one was fired at her.

"Don't you dare touch my daughter," Starfire said, standing next to Nightwing. Nightfire took this opportunity to get up and run to the edge. Blackfire got back up and followed her. When Night got to the edge, she jumped and dove like she was diving in a pool. Blackfire continued to follow her as she got closer and closer to the floor. When she got closer, Night yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Now!" She was about a foot off the ground when her silver board came up under her. She held on with her arms around the board as if she were hugging it as it flew a foot off the ground. Blackfire saw what Night was doing and turned up, avoiding hitting the ground. Nightfire pushed up on the board like it she was surfing and steered the board so she was floating by the adults and the three teens. Soon, Gordanians flooded into the room and surrounded them.

"What do we do now, oh wise leader?" Wasp asked as he tried to protect Ivy. Cam came up besides them.

"Fight," she said. "I think you might know how to do that." Night joked with Nightwing. Soon, everyone split up and started to fight with the Gordanians. Night looked around and saw that Blackfire was starting to disappear in all of the madness. She held on to her board and flew up to her as fast as she could. "Don't tell me that you want to leave this touching family reunion, do you? And I thought we were bonding so well." Blackfire turned around.

"Actually, I was. Have fun." She was about to fire a star bolt when a baby hippo hit her on the back. It then turned into a small baby bird. It chirped at Night happily.

"Where've you been? Never mind." The two of them started to fight when Night looked around and saw the others struggling.

"Ani, down to the others." They flew down to where the others were fighting even more Gordanians than before. Night saw that Nightwing was pulling different things out if his belt and firing them at different Gordanians. Night looked down and saw where he was grabbing and threw the first thing she could. She hit one that was trying to get Iris dead in the stomach and it exploded on him, forcing him back. Night ran to Iris.  
"How about we stick to the stuff we know how to do and not practice during the real thing?" Iris joked as she shook off the shock from almost being caught in the explosion. Night looked back around the room.

"Where's Blackfire?" she yelled. Everyone looked around the room. She was nowhere.

"Where is that sound coming from?" Ani asked. Changeling nodded, obviously thinking the same thing. Soon, everyone heard a beeping noise.

"Where did the Gordanians go?" Everyone looked around and saw that all of the Gordanians had fled.

"We need to go," Nightwing said. Soon, the building began to shake and fall down. Starfire grabbed Nightwing's hands as she started to lift up. Raven created a disk under her and Cyborg. Changeling changed into a pterodactyl and grabbed Cam's shoulders. Shadow created flying disks like his mother's for him and Iris. Ani and Wasp both shrunk down and flew themselves. Night looked around before she ran back to the platform. "Nightfire, we have to go now!" Nightwing yelled.

"I'm coming." She grabbed for her board, which was already under a pile of debris. She hopped on it and started to hit a button on the back of the board for it to start. "Go on. I'll be right behind you." Starfire looked down at Nightwing and started to fly ahead of Night and tried to catch up with the others. "Start, you stupid thing," Night said as she kept hitting the button with her foot as the building began to rumble around her. "Hurry up!" Parts of the ceiling started to fall around her. "That's it," she growled and hit her foot down hard. The button finally started the board, flying fast as the room started to explode behind her.

"Where is she?" Starfire said as she placed Nightwing down on the ground outside the spaceship. "That's it. I'm going back in there." Starfire was about to fly back in when she saw the explosion from the large room. The explosion soon expanded to the entire spaceship. Starfire was about to scream when Night came flying out of the opening. Her board flew right into a tree as Night flew off and into a bush. Everyone ran over to the bush.

"Next time, I'm working on landing this thing." She was covered in branches and leaves, and her hair had a branch sticking out of it. She had a few cuts on her face, including a deep-looking one on her forehead. Shadow gave her a hand to help her up. She pulled up and was about to stand straight when a branch connected her shoelaces together, making her fall into Shadow a little.

"Thanks." She dusted herself off. "Is everyone alright?" Starfire ran up and hugged her.

"My little Bumgorf!" She started to hug to her daughter tighter.

"Mom. Can't. Breathe." Night chocked out. Starfire let go and stepped to the side. Nightwing was standing next to her with an angry face.

"We will talk about this back at the Tower." Everyone was about to leave when they noticed that Night was still back where she was standing, but turned looking at the tree. She turned around when she felt the eyes of everyone on her. "What? I can't find that stupid board." she shrugged.

So ladies and geentalmen, good news, great news and bad news.

Good news: One more chapter and an eploge and this story's done!

Great news: After this, I have a sequal and a surprise for y'all that I will post as soon as I can!

Bad news: I will be in Colorado till the 18th of August. Sorry. I will get what ever I can to my editor as soon as I can.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this story. Its been a joy writtin' for y'all!


	24. We're all in this together!

So, this is it. (No I'm not putting up the Michal Jackson movie!) My last actual chapter! I actually came up with this chapter when I was at Show Chior Camp. Don't really know how, but hey, I think it worked out fine. I promies, no one's gonna bust into song and dance in this chapter.

When everyone got back to the Tower, they went straight to the main room. Lily was laying on Titan, asleep in front of the TV. Claire was sitting on the couch as she flipped through a magazine. When she heard the door open, she turned and put the magazine down.

"How'd it go?" she asked, looking at Joey.

"She got away," Mari said, trying to get the stick out of her hair. Cam was right beside her,

"We might have to cut this out, Sweetie." She started to pull on the stick. Mari was trying to pull her hair out of the ponytail, but the stick was in the way and around the hair at the base of it. Rachel went over to Lily, picked her up, and left the room to put her to bed. Claire stood up and walked over to Joey.

"Are you okay?" She touched a small cut on his cheek. He pulled away from her like she was contagious. Mari was sitting on a chair while Cam was sitting on the counter with a pair of scissors. Elle was sitting in the booth with a piece of paper she found with Kevin. Richard was talking to Kori while Vic and Gar where fighting over what to cook. Everyone stopped to look at Joey and Claire. "What's wrong, Honey?"

"I'm not your honey." Joey looked at her right in the eyes.

"Look, can't we talk about this later?" Claire said, trying to grab Joey's hand.

"No. We already talked about this. You can't talk to one of my friends like that and expect me to stay with you."

Everyone watched the fight but Mari. She was looking down on the floor when Titan walked over and sat in front of her. "My friends come first. My team," he looked over at Mari, "comes first."

"What, you're going to pick some chick that you've known only a few weeks over me, who you've known almost your whole life?" Claire retorted angrily. Rachel had reentered the room by this point and was standing next to Rich and Kori.

"Yes."

Claire turned from Joey to Mari. "You've ruined everything! You've come here and just took everything over." She started getting right up in Mari's face. Mari just stood up. "You think that you're in charge of this place. You know what you are? Queen of the Freaks. All you do is just tell a bunch of weird freaks what to do. You went and almost got all of them killed."

"Get out of my tower."

Claire stopped mid-rant. "What? Are you trying to tell me what to do?"

"Yes. You can yell at me, make fun of me all you want. But when you started making fun of my friends, I'm drawing the line. Now, I'm only going to say this one more time: get out of my Tower," Mari said. Everyone looked at Claire and Mari.

"You know what? I'm gone." She grabbed her bag. "But you'll be sorry." When she reached the door, she turned back and looked around the room. Titan started to growl. Mari sat down when Claire left.

"Don't cut a lot off. Only the stuff necessary." Cam just blinked and grabbed the scissors.

"Fine. But your hair would look really cute short," Cam said. Mari looked over at Elle, whose head was bent over. Mari got up right before Cam was about to cut a bit of hair off. Mari sat down next to Elle.

"You okay?" Elle lifted her head up. She had tear stains, but she was laughing.

"I'm fine. I just can't believe that I was friends with her." Kevin and Joey nodded in agreement. Mari was about to say something when she heard her dad start to yell.

"No! I won't let her!" All of the parents were huddled together. Kori grabbed Richard by the ear and pulled him down so she could whisper to him. All of the kids looked at each other. Cam came over with Ivy and snipped off a small part of Mari's hair. Mari jumped and looked at Cam, who had a small amount of hair and the stick in her hand. Mari was about to say something when her father cleared his throat.

"Mariand'r," he said as he pointed in front of him, "now." Cam and Ivy got up to let Mari out of the booth. Mari walked up to her father with her chin up. When she got up to him, all of the other adults moved back, even Kori, though she was still in arm's length. "You disobeyed an order. Not only did you put yourself in danger, but others too. You could have been severely hurt or worse." Mari took a deep breath and looked him right in the eyes.

"I…" she began. Rich just put up a hand to stop her.

"But, you followed your gut well. You kept your head on straight when in trouble and were quick to think on your feet. You also stood by your team. With a little training, you could become a great leader." Everyone's face lit up with pure joy. Mari looked at her mom, then to her dad.

"I can be a Titan? Really?" Mari looked back at her friends; Elle was hugging Kevin and high-fiving Joey. She smiled back at them.

"What about us?" Cam asked. Ivy nodded. "I really don't think my mom would let me move out here by myself." Rich just smiled.

"Talk to Tim. He'll set you two up." Cam and Ivy both high-fived each other. The kids started to cheer until Rich began to talk again, loud enough so everyone could hear him. "This is a lot of responsibility. You'll have to train hard, work hard. You have‒"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. What about our uniforms?" Elle interrupted. Everyone looked at her. She had a serious look on her face.

"Do you want to make them?" Mari asked, slowly. Elle's face lit up. She started hopping up and down like crazy.

"Oh, please, please, please, please."

"Sure, just don't make a mess," Rachel said. Elle started to do a dance while sitting down. The kids all started to talk about how they wanted their uniforms to look until Elle changed into a mouse and ran away. Mari looked back at her dad.

"There's also a lot of paper work and research and things like that," Richard continued. Mari looked at her mom and smiled. "It's a lot of hard work. Are you sure that you want to be the leader?" Richard asked with a smile. Mari looked back at her friends. Everyone looked at Mari and smiled. Soon, Little Mouse Elle appeared on her shoulder and nodded as she squeaked.

"I'm in," Mari said. The mouse jumped off her shoulder and changed back in mid-air.

"Alright!" she yelled. Everyone laughed. "If you have any specific needs, tell me. But I'm coming up with the designs myself. So get over it!" Joey and Kevin started to yell at Elle while Cam and Ivy were telling her what they "needed". Mari turned back to her father.

"There are a few more things you have to do as leader," he said. Mari smiled.

"Is reffing these fights one of those things? 'Cause I think I can," Mari replied, laughing.

"Well, that, and you have to do press conferences." Mari's face twisted a little.

"No prob. A little fear of public speaking isn't gonna stop Nightfire." Mari said, rubbing the back of her neck.Kori laughed and hugged Mari.

"You will do fine, my little Bumgorf." Mari was about to say something when she heard yelling coming from the kitchen area.

"Meat! These kids need some protein after their first big fight," she heard Cyborg yell.

"Tofu is protein too. Plus you don't have the death of those poor little animals' deaths on your consciouses." Soon Elle and Kevin started in with them. Richard looked at Mari.

"You're on," Mari heard as she stepped up. Ivy had jumped in and was helping Gar and Elle. Joey trying to quiet Titan, who had started barking with the fight.

"Guys!" Mari yelled. No one seemed to have heard her. "Guys!" She yelled a little louder. Still everyone continued to fight and yell. Mari rolled her eyes as she hopped onto the table. She took a deep breath, put two of her fingers in her mouth and whistled. The whistle was loud and high. Titan stopped barking and laid down, whining. Gar and Elle stopped and covered their ears. Everyone else just stopped and looked. "Let's just go get some pizza." Everyone just shrugged and started to walk out to go get some pizza. Mari just watched everyone laugh and talk until she saw a hand come up to help her down. Mari looked to see Joey. "What, are you trying to just be Mr. Helps-A-Lot?" Mari took his hand and jumped down.

"So, think this will be the end of all things normal?" Joey asked as they walked through the doors, trying to meet up with the others.

"When have you ever been normal?" Mari asked, laughing. Joey just smirked and chuckled a little. "Nah, I don't think it's an end. I think it's the greatest beginning of our lifetime." Mari said, smiling. They walked a few more feet till they heard Elle yell.

"Hurry up you guys. We'll leave with or without you." Mari looked over at Joey.

"Race you to the team." She started to run ahead of him, not waiting for an answer.

"You're on," Joey said, running up to follow her.

So people, there is the last actual chapter. I have a epilogue that will be up soon. I'm about to leave for Steamboat Springs today to go down the Yampa river. So much fun! See you all in a few days. Review porfavor!


	25. Four Years Later: An Epilogue

Okay, so, I lied. My editor sent this to me like two seconds after I uploaded the last chapter. I hope you all enjoy this.

Four Months Later

Mari sat in her room, working at her desk. She had a few open files and some evidence next to her laptop.

_ …And she fell down in front of everyone with the lunch all over her. Elle and I couldn't stop laughing._

Titan opened Mari's door, walked in, and laid down next to Mari's chair. Mari scratched his head and went back to typing.

_ So far, being the Titan's leader is going okay. My dad keeps trying to tell me what I should do, how I should train the guys. I think he's just upset that I'm doing a bit of a better job then he was when he started._

_ Elle keeps walking around with her sketch book. She keeps promising that we will have our uniforms by the end of the month, but she keeps making changes. She says that she keeps having creative visions. __Whatever!_

_ Mom and Dad say that in a couple months, Ry can move out to Jump with us. They also say that the team can live here at the Tower while they stay at the house with Ryan and Lily. I'm so excited! That pretty much means I'm living without my dad's stupid rules. Oh yeah!_

_ Kevin is working on a bunch of new things like a new set of communicators for us. That way, we can have our own way of talking to each other. Plus he said that he came up with something to help us with school. A lot of explosions are coming from his room. I'm a little worried._

_ We have to come up with a slogan that can be put on all of the signs when you come into the city. I came up with one, but I don't know if it will win. It might be too long. "Welcome to Jump City. A place of new beginnings, and new heroes."_

Soon, a red light started to flash and a loud noise filled the room. Titan jumped up while Mari grabbed her mask and ran to the door. Joey opened it up as she grabbed her skateboard and belt that was tilted up against the wall next to her door.

"Plasmus," he said. Mari pulled on the belt and ran with Joey through the hallway. _Yep, this is definitely going to be the start of something really great._

So this is it. The end of Apple. I have been waiting for this moment since I started writing this story. My first chapter story is now complet! I did find a little thing in the story that ties the teens to their parents. If you can find it, well, then you're a smart cookie. Be on the look out for me. I will be posting up things soon! Happy belated 4th of July all. Live long and prosper. See y'all soon. Y'all come back now, ya hear!


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